The Book

Chapter 11

It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt, at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses. By degrees,  I remember, a stronger light pressed upon my nerves, so that I was obliged to  shut my eyes. Darkness then came over me, and troubled me; but hardly had I felt this, when, by opening my eyes, as I now suppose, the light poured in upon me again. I walked, and, I believe, descended; but I presently found a great  alteration in my sensations. Before, dark and opaque bodies had surrounded me, impervious to my touch or sight; but I now found that I could wander on at liberty, with no obstacles which I could not either surmount or avoid. The light became more and more oppressive to me; and, the heat wearying me as I walked, I  sought a place where I could receive shade. This was the forest near Ingolstadt;  and here I lay by the side of a brook resting from my fatigue, until I felt  tormented by hunger and thirst. This roused me from my nearly dormant state, and  I ate some berries which I found hanging on the trees, or lying on the ground. I  slaked my thirst at the brook; and then lying down, was overcome by sleep.

“It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half-frightened, as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate. Before I had quitted your apartment, on a sensation of cold, I had covered myself with some clothes; but these were insufficient to secure me from the dews of night. I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.

“Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens, and gave me a sensation of  pleasure. I started up, and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees. * I gazed with a kind of wonder. It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path; and I again went out in search of berries. I was still  cold, when under one of the trees I found a huge cloak, with which I covered myself, and sat down upon the ground. No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all  was confused. I felt light, and hunger, and thirst, and darkness; innumerable  sounds rung in my ears, and on all sides various scents saluted me: the only  object that I could distinguish was the bright moon, and I fixed my eyes on that  with pleasure.

“Several changes of day and night passed, and the orb of night had greatly lessened, when I began to distinguish my sensations from each other. I gradually  saw plainly the clear stream that supplied me with drink, and the trees that  shaded me with their foliage. I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from my eyes. I began  also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me, and to  perceive the boundaries of the radiant roof of light which canopied me.  Sometimes I tried to imitate the pleasant songs of the birds, but was unable. Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again.

“The moon had disappeared from the night, and again, with a lessened form, showed itself, while I still remained in the forest. My sensations had, by this time, become distinct, and my mind received every day additional ideas. My eyes  became accustomed to the light, and to perceive objects in their right forms; I distinguished the insect from the herb, and, by degrees, one herb from another. I found that the sparrow uttered none but harsh notes, whilst those of the  blackbird and thrush were sweet and enticing.

“One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire which had been left by  some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects! I examined the materials of the fire, and to my joy found it to be composed of wood. I quickly collected some  branches; but they were wet, and would not burn. I was pained at this, and sat still watching the operation of the fire. The wet wood which I had placed near  the heat dried, and itself became inflamed. I reflected on this; and by touching  the various branches, I discovered the cause, and busied myself in collecting a great quantity of wood, that I might dry it, and have a plentiful supply of  fire. When night came on, and brought sleep with it, I was in the greatest fear lest my fire should be extinguished. I covered it carefully with dry wood and  leaves, and placed wet branches upon it; and then, spreading my cloak, I lay on  the ground, and sunk into sleep.

“It was morning when I awoke, and my first care was to visit the fire. I uncovered it, and a gentle breeze quickly fanned it into a flame. I observed this also, and contrived a fan of branches, which roused the embers when they  were nearly extinguished. When night came again, I found, with pleasure, that  the fire gave light as well as heat; and that the discovery of this element was useful to me in my food; for I found some of the offals that the travellers had  left had been roasted, and tasted much more savoury than the berries I gathered  from the trees. I tried, therefore, to dress my food in the same manner, placing  it on the live embers. I found that the berries were spoiled by this operation, and the nuts and roots much improved.

“Food, however, became scarce; and I often spent the whole day searching in  vain for a few acorns to assuage the pangs of hunger. When I found this, I  resolved to quit the place that I had hitherto inhabited, to seek for one where  the few wants I experienced would be more easily satisfied. In this emigration,  I exceedingly lamented the loss of the fire which I had obtained through accident, and knew not how to reproduce it. I gave several hours to the serious  consideration of this difficulty; but I was obliged to relinquish all attempt to  supply it; and, wrapping myself up in my cloak, I struck across the wood towards  the setting sun. I passed three days in these rambles, and at length discovered the open country. A great fall of snow had taken place the night before, and the  fields were of one uniform white; the appearance was disconsolate, and I found my feet chilled by the cold damp substance that covered the ground.

“It was about seven in the morning, and I longed to obtain food and shelter; at length I perceived a small hut, on a rising ground, which had doubtless been  built for the convenience of some shepherd. This was a new sight to me; and I  examined the structure with great curiosity. Finding the door open, I entered. An old man sat in it, near a fire, over which he was preparing his breakfast. He  turned on hearing a noise; and, perceiving me, shrieked loudly, and, quitting  the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly  appeared capable. His appearance, different from any I had ever before seen, and his flight, somewhat surprised me. But I was enchanted by the appearance of the  hut: here the snow and rain could not penetrate; the ground was dry; and it presented to me then as exquisite and divine a retreat as Pandaemonium appeared  to the daemons of hell after their sufferings in the lake of fire. I greedily  devoured the remnants of the shepherd’s breakfast, which consisted of bread,  cheese, milk, and wine; the latter, however, I did not like. Then, overcome by fatigue, I lay down among some straw, and fell asleep.

“It was noon when I awoke; and, allured by the warmth of the sun, which shone  brightly on the white ground, I determined to recommence my travels; and,  depositing the remains of the peasant’s breakfast in a wallet I found, I proceeded across the fields for several hours, until at sunset I arrived at a  village. How miraculous did this appear! the huts, the neater cottages, and  stately houses, engaged my admiration by turns. The vegetables in the gardens,  the milk and cheese that I saw placed at the windows of some of the cottages,  allured my appetite. One of the best of these I entered; but I had hardly placed  my foot within the door, before the children shrieked, and one of the women  fainted. The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country, and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel, quite bare, and  making a wretched appearance after the palaces I had beheld in the village. This  hovel, however, joined a cottage of a neat and pleasant appearance; but, after  my late dearly bought experience, I dared not enter it. My place of refuge was  constructed of wood, but so low that I could with difficulty sit upright in it.  No wood, however, was placed on the earth, which formed the floor, but it was dry; and although the wind entered it by innumerable chinks, I found it an  agreeable asylum from the snow and rain.

“Here then I retreated, and lay down happy to have found a shelter, however  miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity  of man.

“As soon as morning dawned, I crept from my kennel, that I might view the  adjacent cottage, and discover if I could remain in the habitation I had found.  It was situated against the back of the cottage, and surrounded on the sides which were exposed by a pig-sty and a clear pool of water. One part was open, and by that I had crept in; but now I covered every crevice by which I might be perceived with stones and wood, yet in such a manner that I might move them on  occasion to pass out: all the light I enjoyed came through the sty, and that was  sufficient for me.

“Having thus arranged my dwelling, and carpeted it with clean straw, I retired; for I saw the figure of a man at a distance, and I remembered too well my treatment the night before to trust myself in his power. I had first,  however, provided for my sustenance for that day, by a loaf of course bread,  which I purloined, and a cup with which I could drink, more conveniently than from my hand, of the pure water which flowed by my retreat. The floor was a  little raised, so that it was kept perfectly dry, and by its vicinity to the  chimney of the cottage it was tolerably warm.

“Being thus provided, I resolved to reside in this hovel until something should occur which might alter my determination. It was indeed a paradise compared to the bleak forest, my former residence, the rain-dropping branches,  and dank earth. I ate my breakfast with pleasure, and was about to remove a  plank to procure myself a little water, when I heard a step, and looking through  a small chink, I beheld a young creature, with a pail on her head, passing  before my hovel. The girl was young, and of gentle demeanour, unlike what I have  since found cottagers and farm-house servants to be. Yet she was meanly dressed, a coarse blue petticoat and a linen jacket being her only garb; her fair hair was plaited, but not adorned: she looked patient, yet sad. I lost sight of her; and in about a quarter of an hour she returned, bearing the pail, which was now  partly filled with milk. As she walked along, seemingly incommoded by the  burden, a young man met her, whose countenance expressed a deeper despondence.  Uttering a few sounds with an air of melancholy, he took the pail from her head,  and bore it to the cottage himself. She followed, and they disappeared. Presently I saw the young man again, with some tools in his hand, cross the  field behind the cottage; and the girl was also busied, sometimes in the house,  and sometimes in the yard.

“On examining my dwelling, I found that one of the windows of the cottage had  formerly occupied a part of it, but the panes had been filled up with wood. In  one of these was a small and almost imperceptible chink, through which the eye  could just penetrate. Through this crevice a small room was visible, whitewashed  and clean, but very bare of furniture. In one corner, near a small fire, sat an  old man, leaning his head on his hands in a disconsolate attitude. The young  girl was occupied in arranging the cottage; but presently she took something out  of a drawer, which employed her hands, and she sat down beside the old man, who, taking up an instrument, began to play, and to produce sounds sweeter than the voice of the thrush or the nightingale. It was a lovely sight, even to me, poor  wretch! who had never beheld aught beautiful before. The silver hair and benevolent countenance of the aged cottager won my reverence, while the gentle  manners of the girl enticed my love. He played a sweet mournful air, which I  perceived drew tears from the eyes of his amiable companion, of which the old  man took no notice, until she sobbed audibly; he then pronounced a few sounds,  and the fair creature, leaving her work, knelt at his feet. He raised her, and  smiled with such kindness and affection that I felt sensations of a peculiar and  over-powering nature: they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had  never before experienced, either from hunger or cold, warmth or food; and I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emotions.

“Soon after this the young man returned, bearing on his shoulders a load of  wood. The girl met him at the door, helped to relieve him of his burden, and, taking some of the fuel into the cottage, placed it on the fire; then she and the youth went apart into a nook of the cottage and he showed her a large loaf and a piece of cheese. She seemed pleased, and went into the garden for some  roots and plants, which she placed in water, and then upon the fire. She  afterwards continued her work, whilst the young man went into the garden, and  appeared busily employed in digging and pulling up roots. After he had been employed thus about an hour, the young woman joined him, and they entered the cottage together.

“The old man had, in the meantime, been pensive; but, on the appearance of his companions, he assumed a more cheerful air, and they sat down to eat. The  meal was quickly despatched. The young woman was again occupied in arranging the  cottage; the old man walked before the cottage in the sun for a few minutes,  leaning on the arm of the youth. Nothing could exceed in beauty the contrast  between these two excellent creatures. One was old, with silver hairs and a countenance beaming with benevolence and love: the younger was slight and graceful in his figure, and his features were moulded with the finest symmetry;  yet his eyes and attitude expressed the utmost sadness and despondency. The old  man returned to the cottage; and the youth, with tools different from those he had used in the morning, directed his steps across the fields.

“Night quickly shut in, but to my extreme wonder, I found that the cottagers had a means of prolonging light by the use of tapers, and was delighted to find that the setting of the sun did not put an end to the pleasure I experienced in  watching my human neighbours. In the evening, the young girl and her companion  were employed in various occupations which I did not understand; and the old man  again took up the instrument which produced the divine sounds that had enchanted  me in the morning. So soon as he had finished, the youth began, not to play, but to utter sounds that were monotonous, and neither resembling the harmony of the old man’s instrument nor the songs of the birds: I since found that he read  aloud, but at that time I knew nothing of the science of words or letters.

“The family, after having been thus occupied for a short time, extinguished  their lights, and retired, as I conjectured, to rest.

 * The moon.


Chapter 12

I lay on my straw, but I could not sleep. I thought of the occurrences of the day. What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these  people; and I longed to join them, but dared not. I remembered too well the  treatment I had suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers, and resolved, whatever course of conduct I might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the present I would remain quietly in my hovel, watching, and endeavouring to discover the motives which influenced their actions.

“The cottagers arose the next morning before the sun. The young woman  arranged the cottage, and prepared the food; and the youth departed after the first meal.

“This day was passed in the same routine as that which preceded it. The young  man was constantly employed out of doors, and the girl in various laborious  occupations within. The old man, whom I soon perceived to be blind, employed his leisure hours on his instrument or in contemplation. Nothing could exceed the love and respect which the younger cottagers exhibited towards their venerable  companion. They performed towards him every little office of affection and duty  with gentleness; and he rewarded them by his benevolent smiles.

“They were not entirely happy. The young man and his companion often went  apart, and appeared to weep. I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but I was  deeply affected by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less  strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched. Yet why were these gentle beings unhappy? They possessed a delightful house (for such it  was in my eyes) and every luxury; they had a fire to warm them when chill, and  delicious viands when hungry; they were dressed in excellent clothes; and, still  more, they enjoyed one another’s company and speech, interchanging each day looks of affection and kindness. What did their tears imply? Did they really express pain? I was at first unable to solve these questions; but perpetual attention and time explained to me many appearances which were at first  enigmatic.

“A considerable period elapsed before I discovered one of the causes of the  uneasiness of this amiable family: it was poverty; and they suffered that evil in a very distressing degree. Their nourishment consisted entirely of the  vegetables of their garden, and the milk of one cow, which gave very little  during the winter, when its masters could scarcely procure food to support it.  They often, I believe, suffered the pangs of hunger very poignantly, especially the two younger cottagers; for several times they placed food before the old man when they reserved none for themselves.

“This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a neighbouring wood.

“I discovered also another means through which I was enabled to assist their labours. I found that the youth spent a great part of each day in collecting  wood for the family fire; and, during the night, I often took his tools, the use  of which I quickly discovered, and brought home firing sufficient for the consumption of several days.

“I remember the first time that I did this the young woman, when she opened  the door in the morning, appeared greatly astonished on seeing a great pile of wood on the outside. She uttered some words in a loud voice, and the youth  joined her, who also expressed surprise. I observed, with pleasure, that he did not go to the forest that day, but spent it in repairing the cottage and  cultivating the garden.

“By degrees I made a discovery of still greater moment. I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one another by articulate sounds. I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes  produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenances of the hearers. This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to become  acquainted with it. But I was baffled in every attempt I made for this purpose. Their pronunciation was quick; and the words they uttered, not having any apparent connection with visible objects, I was unable to discover any clue by which I could unravel the mystery of their reference. By great application,  however, and after having remained during the space of several revolutions of the moon in my hovel, I discovered the names that were given to some of the most familiar objects of discourse; I learned and applied the words, fire, milk, bread, and wood. I learned also the names of the cottagers themselves. The youth  and his companion had each of them several names, but the old man had only one,  which was father. The girl was called sister, or Agatha; and the youth Felix, brother, or son. I cannot describe the delight I felt when I learned the ideas appropriated to each of these sounds, and was able to pronounce them. I  distinguished several other words, without being able as yet to understand or  apply them; such as good, dearest, unhappy.

“I spent the winter in this manner. The gentle manners and beauty of the cottagers greatly endeared them to me: when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathised in their joys. I saw few human beings beside them; and if any other happened to enter the cottage, their harsh manners and rude gait only enhanced to me the superior accomplishments of my friends. The old man, I could perceive, often endeavoured to encourage his children, as sometimes I found that he called them, to cast off their melancholy. He would talk in a cheerful accent, with an expression of goodness that bestowed pleasure  even upon me. Agatha listened with respect, her eyes sometimes filled with tears, which she endeavoured to wipe away unperceived; but I generally found that her countenance and tone were more cheerful after having listened to the exhortations of her father. It was not thus with Felix. He was always the  saddest of the group; and, even to my unpractised senses, he appeared to have  suffered more deeply than his friends. But if his countenance was more sorrowful, his voice was more cheerful than that of his sister, especially when  he addressed the old man.

“I could mention innumerable instances, which, although slight, marked the dispositions of these amiable cottagers. In the midst of poverty and want, Felix carried with pleasure to his sister the first little white flower that peeped out from beneath the snowy ground. Early in the morning, before she had risen, he cleared away the snow that obstructed her path to the milkhouse, drew water  from the well, and brought the wood from the out-house, where, to his perpetual  astonishment, he found his store always replenished by an invisible hand. In the  day, I believe, he worked sometimes for a neighbouring farmer, because he often  went forth, and did not return until dinner, yet brought no wood with him. At  other times he worked in the garden; but, as there was little to do in the  frosty season, he read to the old man and Agatha.

“I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers — their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was  in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of  despondence and mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal  effects of this miserable deformity.

“As the sun became warmer, and the light of day longer, the snow vanished, and I beheld the bare trees and the black earth. From this time Felix was more  employed; and the heart-moving indications of impending famine disappeared. Their food, as I afterwards found, was coarse, but it was wholesome; and they procured a sufficiency of it. Several new kinds of plants sprung up in the  garden, which they dressed; and these signs of comfort increased daily as the season advanced.

“The old man, leaning on his son, walked each day at noon, when it did not rain, as I found it was called when the heavens poured forth its waters. This  frequently took place; but a high wind quickly dried the earth, and the season became far more pleasant than it had been.

“My mode of life in my hovel was uniform. During the morning, I attended the motions of the cottagers; and when they were dispersed in various occupations I slept: the remainder of the day was spent in observing my friends. When they had retired to rest, if there was any moon, or the night was star-light, I went into the woods, and collected my own food and fuel for the cottage. When I returned,  as often as it was necessary, I cleared their path of the snow, and performed  those offices that I had seen done by Felix. I afterwards found that these  labours, performed by an invisible hand, greatly astonished them; and once or twice I heard them, on these occasions, utter the words good spirit, wonderful; but I did not then understand the signification of these terms.

“My thoughts now became more active, and I longed to discover the motives and  feelings of these lovely creatures; I was inquisitive to know why Felix appeared so miserable and Agatha so sad. I thought (foolish wretch!) that it might be in  my power to restore happiness to these deserving people. When I slept, or was absent, the forms of the venerable blind father, the gentle Agatha, and the excellent Felix flitted before me, I looked upon them as superior beings, who  would be the arbiters of my future destiny. I formed in my imagination a  thousand pictures of presenting myself to them, and their reception of me. I imagined that they would be disgusted, until, by my gentle demeanour and conciliating words, I should first win their favour, and afterwards their love.

“These thoughts exhilarated me, and led me to apply with fresh ardour to the acquiring the art of language. My organs were indeed harsh, but supple: and  although my voice was very unlike the soft music of their tones, yet I  pronounced such words as I understood with tolerable ease. It was as the ass and  the lap-dog; yet surely the gentle ass whose intentions were affectionate, although his manners were rude, deserved better treatment than blows and  execration.

“The pleasant showers and genial warmth of spring greatly altered the aspect of the earth. Men, who before this change seemed to have been hid in caves,  dispersed themselves, and were employed in various arts of cultivation. The  birds sang in more cheerful notes, and the leaves began to bud forth on the trees. Happy, happy earth! fit habitation for gods, which, so short a time before, was bleak, damp, and unwholesome. My spirits were elevated by the  enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the  present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy.”


Chapter 13

“I now hasten to the more moving part of my story. I shall  relate events that impressed me with feelings which, from what I had been, have  made me what I am.

“Spring advanced rapidly; the weather became fine, and the skies cloudless.  It surprised me that what before was desert and gloomy should now bloom with the most beautiful flowers and verdure. My senses were gratified and refreshed by a thousand scents of delight, and a thousand sights of beauty.

“It was on one of these days, when my cottagers periodically rested from labour — the old man played on his guitar, and the children listened to him —  that I observed the countenance of Felix was melancholy beyond expression; he  sighed frequently; and once his father paused in his music, and I conjectured by  his manner that he inquired the cause of his son’s sorrow. Felix replied in a cheerful accent, and the old man was recommencing his music when some one tapped  at the door.

“It was a lady on horseback, accompanied by a countryman as a guide. The lady  was dressed in a dark suit, and covered with a thick black veil. Agatha asked a  question; to which the stranger only replied by pronouncing, in a sweet accent, the name of Felix. Her voice was musical, but unlike that of either of my friends. On hearing this word, Felix came up hastily to the lady; who, when she  saw him, threw up her veil, and I beheld a countenance of angelic beauty and expression. Her hair of a shining raven black, and curiously braided; her eyes were dark, but gentle, although animated; her features of a regular proportion,  and her complexion wondrously fair, each cheek tinged with a lovely pink.

“Felix seemed ravished with delight when he saw her, every trait of sorrow vanished from his face, and it instantly expressed a degree of ecstatic joy, of  which I could hardly have believed it capable; his eyes sparkled as his cheek flushed with pleasure; and at that moment I thought him as beautiful as the  stranger. She appeared affected by different feelings; wiping a few tears from her lovely eyes, she held out her hand to Felix, who kissed it rapturously, and  called her, as well as I could distinguish, his sweet Arabian. She did not appear to understand him, but smiled. He assisted her to dismount, and  dismissing her guide, conducted her into the cottage. Some conversation took  place between him and his father; and the young stranger knelt at the old man’s  feet, and would have kissed his hand, but he raised her, and embraced her affectionately.

“I soon perceived that, although the stranger uttered articulate sounds, and appeared to have a language of her own, she was neither understood by, nor herself understood, the cottagers. They made many signs which I did not  comprehend; but I saw that her presence diffused gladness through the cottage, dispelling their sorrow as the sun dissipates the morning mists. Felix seemed  peculiarly happy, and with smiles of delight welcomed his Arabian. Agatha, the ever-gentle Agatha, kissed the hands of the lovely stranger; and, pointing to  her brother, made signs which appeared to me to mean that he had been sorrowful  until she came. Some hours passed thus, while they, by their countenances,  expressed joy, the cause of which I did not comprehend. Presently I found, by  the frequent recurrence of some sound which the stranger repeated after them, that she was endeavouring to learn their language; and the idea instantly occurred to me that I should make use of the same instructions to the same end. The stranger learned about twenty words at the first lesson, most of them, indeed, were those which I had before understood, but I profited by the  others.

“As night came on, Agatha and the Arabian retired early. When they separated,  Felix kissed the hand of the stranger, and said, ‘Good night, sweet Safie.’ He  sat up much longer, conversing with his father; and, by the frequent repetition  of her name, I conjectured that their lovely guest was the subject of their  conversation. I ardently desired to understand them, and bent every faculty towards that purpose, but found it utterly impossible.

“The next morning Felix went out to his work; and, after the usual occupations of Agatha were finished, the Arabian sat at the feet of the old man,  and, taking his guitar, played some airs so entrancingly beautiful that they at once drew tears of sorrow and delight from my eyes. She sang, and her voice  flowed in a rich cadence, swelling or dying away, like a nightingale of the  woods.

“When she had finished, she gave the guitar to Agatha, who at first declined it. She played a simple air, and her voice accompanied it in sweet accents, but unlike the wondrous strain of the stranger. The old man appeared enraptured, and said some words, which Agatha endeavoured to explain to Safie, and by which he appeared to wish to express that she bestowed on him the greatest delight by her  music.

“The days now passed as peacefully as before, with the sole alteration that  joy had taken the place of sadness in the countenances of my friends. Safie was  always gay and happy; she and I improved rapidly in the knowledge of language, so that in two months I began to comprehend most of the words uttered by my protectors.

“In the meanwhile also the black ground was covered with herbage, and the  green banks interspersed with innumerable flowers, sweet to the scent and the  eyes, stars of pale radiance among the moonlight woods; the sun became warmer, the nights clear and balmy, and my nocturnal rambles were an extreme pleasure to me, although they were considerably shortened by the late setting and early  rising of the sun; for I never ventured abroad during daylight, fearful of meeting with the same treatment I had formerly endured in the first village  which I entered.

“My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the  language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian, who understood very little, and conversed in broken accents, whilst I comprehended and could imitate almost every word that was spoken.

“While I improved in speech, I also learned the science of letters, as it was  taught to the stranger; and this opened before me a wide field for wonder and  delight.

“The book from which Felix instructed Safie was Volney’s Ruins of Empires. I should not have understood the purport of this book, had not Felix, in reading it, given very minute explanations. He had chosen this work, he said, because  the declamatory style was framed in imitation of the eastern authors. Through  this work I obtained a cursory knowledge of history, and a view of the several  empires at present existing in the world it gave me an insight into the manners, governments, and religions of the different nations of the earth. I heard of the slothful Asiatics; of the stupendous genius and mental activity of the Grecians; of the wars and wonderful virtue of the early Romans — of their subsequent  degenerating — of the decline of that mighty empire; of chivalry, Christianity,  and kings. I heard of the discovery of the American hemisphere, and wept with Safie over the hapless fate of its original inhabitants.

“These wonderful narrations inspired me with strange feelings. Was man,  indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and  base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle, and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike. To be a great and virtuous  man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base  and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm. For a long time I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow, or  even why there were laws and governments; but when I heard details of vice and  bloodshed, my wonder ceased, and I turned away with disgust and loathing.

“Every conversation of the cottagers now opened new wonders to me. While I listened to the instructions which Felix bestowed upon the Arabian, the strange  system of human society was explained to me. I heard of the division of  property, of immense wealth and squalid poverty; of rank, descent, and noble blood.

“The words induced me to turn towards myself. I learned that the possessions most esteemed by your fellow-creatures were high and unsullied descent united  with riches. A man might be respected with only one of these advantages but, without either, he was considered, except in very rare instances, as a vagabond and a slave, doomed to waste his powers for the profits of the chosen few! And what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant; but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides,  endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as men. I was more agile than they, and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my  stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and  whom all men disowned?

“I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me:  I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had forever remained in my native wood, nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of  hunger, thirst, and heat!

“Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock. I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and feeling; but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death — a state which I feared yet did not understand. I admired virtue and good feelings, and loved the gentle manners and amiable qualities of my cottagers; but I was shut out from intercourse with them, except through means which I obtained by stealth, when I was unseen and  unknown, and which rather increased than satisfied the desire I had of becoming  one among my fellows. The gentle words of Agatha, and the animated smiles of the charming Arabian, were not for me. The mild exhortations of the old man, and the lively conversation of the loved Felix, were not for me. Miserable, unhappy wretch!

“Other lessons were impressed upon me even more deeply. I heard of the difference of sexes; and the birth and growth of children; how the father doated on the smiles of the infant, and the lively sallies of the older child; how all the life and cares of the mother were wrapped up in the precious charge; how the mind of youth expanded and gained knowledge; of brother, sister, and all the various relationships which bind one human being to another in mutual bonds.

“But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant  days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my  past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.

“I will soon explain to what these feelings tended; but allow me now to  return to the cottagers, whose story excited in me such various feelings of indignation, delight, and wonder, but which all terminated in additional love  and reverence for my protectors (for so I loved, in an innocent, half painful self-deceit, to call them).”


Chapter 15

 “Some time elapsed before I learned the history of my  friends. It was one which could not fail to impress itself deeply on my mind, unfolding as it did a number of circumstances, each interesting and wonderful to one so utterly inexperienced as I was.

“The name of the old man was De Lacey. He was descended from a good family in  France, where he had lived for many years in affluence, respected by his superiors and beloved by his equals. His son was bred in the service of his country; and Agatha had ranked with ladies of the highest distinction. A few  months before my arrival they had lived in a large and luxurious city called  Paris, surrounded by friends, and possessed of every enjoyment which virtue,  refinement of intellect, or taste, accompanied by a moderate fortune, could afford.

“The father of Safie had been the cause of their ruin. He was a Turkish  merchant, and had inhabited Paris for many years,when, for some reason which I could not learn, he became obnoxious to the government. He was seized and cast  into prison the very day that Safie arrived from Constantinople to join him. He  was tried and condemned to death. The injustice of his sentence was very flagrant; all Paris was indignant; and it was judged that his religion and  wealth, rather than the crime alleged against him, had been the cause of his  condemnation.

“Felix had accidentally been present at the trial; his horror and indignation  were uncontrollable when he heard the decision of the court. He made, at that moment, a solemn vow to deliver him, and then looked around for the means. After  many fruitless attempts to gain admittance to the prison, he found a strongly grated window in an unguarded part of the building which lighted the dungeon of  the unfortunate Mahometan; who, loaded with chains, waited in despair the  execution of the barbarous sentence. Felix visited the grate at night, and made known to the prisoner his intentions in his favour. The Turk, amazed and delighted, endeavoured to kindle the zeal of his deliverer by promises of reward and wealth. Felix rejected his offers with contempt; yet when he saw the lovely  Safie, who was allowed to visit her father, and who, by her gestures, expressed  her lively gratitude, the youth could not help owning to his own mind that the captive possessed a treasure which would fully reward his toil and hazard.

“The Turk quickly perceived the impression that his daughter had made on the heart of Felix, and endeavoured to secure him more entirely in his interests by  the promise of her hand in marriage, so soon as he should be conveyed to a place  of safety. Felix was too delicate to accept this offer; yet he looked forward to  the probability of the event as to the consummation of his happiness.

“During the ensuing days, while the preparations were going forward for the  escape of the merchant, the zeal of Felix was warmed by several letters that he  received from this lovely girl, who found means to express her thoughts in the language of her lover by the aid of an old man, a servant of her father, who  understood French. She thanked him in the most ardent terms for his intended  services towards her parent; and at the same time deeply deplored her own fate.

“I have copies of these letters; for I found means, during my residence in the hovel, to procure the implements of writing; and the letters were often in the hands of Felix or Agatha. Before I depart, I will give them to you, they will prove the truth of my tale; but at present, as the sun is already far declined, I shall only have time to repeat the substance of them to you.

“Safie related that her mother was a Christian Arab, seized and made a slave by the Turks; recommended by her beauty, she had won the heart of the father of  Safie, who married her. The young girl spoke in high and enthusiastic terms of her mother, who, born in freedom, spumed the bondage to which she was now  reduced. She instructed her daughter in the tenets of her religion, and taught her to aspire to higher powers of intellect, and an independence of spirit,  forbidden to the female followers of Mahomet. This lady died; but her lessons  were indelibly impressed on the mind of Safie, who sickened at the prospect of  again returning to Asia and being immured within the walls of a harem, allowed only to occupy herself with infantile amusements, ill suited to the temper of  her soul, now accustomed to grand ideas and a noble emulation for virtue. The  prospect of marrying a Christian, and remaining in a country where women were allowed to take a rank in society, was enchanting to her.

“The day for the execution of the Turk was fixed; but, on the night previous to it, he quitted his prison, and before morning was distant many leagues from Paris. Felix had procured passports in the name of his father, sister, and himself. He had previously communicated his plan to the former, who aided the  deceit by quitting his house, under the pretence of a journey, and concealed himself, with his daughter, in an obscure part of Paris.

“Felix conducted the fugitives through France to Lyons, and across Mont Cenis  to Leghorn, where the merchant had decided to wait a favourable opportunity of passing into some part of the Turkish dominions.

“Safie resolved to remain with her father until the moment of his departure, before which time the Turk renewed his promise that she should be united to his  deliverer; and Felix remained with them in expectation of that event; and in the meantime he enjoyed the society of the Arabian, who exhibited towards him the simplest and tenderest affection. They conversed with one another through the means of an interpreter, and sometimes with the interpretation of looks; and  Safie sang to him the divine airs of her native country.

“The Turk allowed this intimacy to take place, and encouraged the hopes of the youthful lovers, while in his heart he had formed far other plans. He loathed the idea that his daughter should be united to a Christian; but he feared the resentment of Felix, if he should appear luke-warm; for he knew that he was still in the power of his deliverer, if he should choose to betray him to  the Italian state which they inhabited. He revolved a thousand plans by which he  should be enabled to prolong the deceit until it might be no longer necessary,  and secretly to take his daughter with him when he departed. His plans were  facilitated by the news which arrived from Paris.

“The government of France were greatly enraged at the escape of their victim,  and spared no pains to detect and punish his deliverer. The plot of Felix was quickly discovered, and De Lacey and Agatha were thrown into prison. The news reached Felix, and roused him from his dream of pleasure. His blind and aged  father, and his gentle sister, lay in a noisome dungeon, while he enjoyed the  free air and the society of her whom he loved. This idea was torture to him. He quickly arranged with the Turks that if the latter should find a favourable  opportunity for escape before Felix could return to Italy, Safie should remain as a boarder at a convent at Leghorn; and then, quitting the lovely Arabian, he  hastened to Paris, and delivered himself up to the vengeance of the law, hoping to free De Lacey and Agatha by this proceeding.

“He did not succeed. They remained confined for five months before the trial took place; the result of which deprived them of their fortune, and condemned  them to a perpetual exile from their native country.

“They found a miserable asylum in the cottage in Germany where I discovered  them. Felix soon learned that the treacherous Turk, for whom he and his family endured such unheard-of oppression, on discovering that his deliverer was thus reduced to poverty and ruin, became a traitor to good feeling and honour, and had quitted Italy with his daughter, insultingly sending Felix a pittance of  money, to aid him, as he said, in some plan of future maintenance.

“Such were the events that preyed on the heart of Felix, and rendered him, when I first saw him, the most miserable of his family. He could have endured poverty; and while this distress had been the meed of his virtue, he gloried in it: but the ingratitude of the Turk, and the loss of his beloved Safie, were misfortunes more bitter and irreparable. The arrival of the Arabian now infused  new life into his soul.

“When the news reached Leghorn that Felix was deprived of his wealth and rank, the merchant commanded his daughter to think no more of her lover, but to  prepare to return to her native country. The generous nature of Safie was outraged by this command; she attempted to expostulate with her father, but he left her angrily, reiterating his tyrannical mandate.

“A few days after, the Turk entered his daughter’s apartment, and told her hastily that he had reason to believe that his residence at Leghorn had been divulged, and that he should speedily be delivered up to the French government; he had, consequently, hired a vessel to convey him to Constantinople, for which  city he should sail in a few hours. He intended to leave his daughter under the care of a confidential servant, to follow at her leisure with the greater part of his property, which had not yet arrived at Leghorn.

“When alone, Safie resolved in her own mind the plan of conduct that it would  become her to pursue in this emergency. A residence in Turkey was abhorrent to her; her religion and her feelings were alike adverse to it. By some papers of her father, which fell into her hands, she heard of the exile of her lover, and learnt the name of the spot where he then resided. She hesitated some time, but at length she formed her determination. Taking with her some jewels that  belonged to her, and a sum of money, she quitted Italy with an attendant, a native of Leghorn, but who understood the common language of Turkey, and departed for Germany.

“She arrived in safety at a town about twenty leagues from the cottage of De Lacey, when her attendant fell dangerously ill. Safie nursed her with the most devoted affection; but the poor girl died, and the Arabian was left alone,  unacquainted with the language of the country, and utterly ignorant of the  customs of the world. She fell, however, into good hands. The Italian had  mentioned the name of the spot for which they were bound and, after her death,  the woman of the house in which they had lived took care that Safie should arrive in safety at the cottage of her lover.”
 


Chapter 16

 “Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that  instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly  bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings  were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage  and its inhabitants, and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.

“When night came, I quitted my retreat, and wandered in the wood; and now, no  longer restrained by the fear of discovery, I gave vent to my anguish in fearful  howlings. I was like a wild beast that had broken the toils; destroying the objects that obstructed me, and ranging through the wood with a stag-like  swiftness. O! what a miserable night I passed! the cold stars shone in mockery,  and the bare trees waved their branches above me: now and then the sweet voice  of a bird burst forth amidst the universal stillness. All, save I, were at rest or in enjoyment: I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me; and, finding  myself unsympathised with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and  destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin.

“But this was a luxury of sensation that could not endure; I became fatigued with excess of bodily exertion, and sank on the damp grass in the sick impotence  of despair. There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity  or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No: from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me, and sent me forth to this insupportable  misery.

“The sun rose; I heard the voices of men, and knew that it was impossible to return to my retreat during that day. Accordingly I hid myself in some thick  underwood, determining to devote the ensuing hours to reflection on my situation.

“The pleasant sunshine, and the pure air of day, restored me to some degree  of tranquillity; and when I considered what had passed at the cottage, I could  not help believing that I had been too hasty in my conclusions. I had certainly  acted imprudently. It was apparent that my conversation had interested the  father in my behalf, and I was a fool in having exposed my person to the horror of his children. I ought to have familiarised the old De Lacey to me, and by degrees to have discovered myself to the rest of his family, when they should  have been prepared for my approach. But I did not believe my errors to be  irretrievable; and, after much consideration, I resolved to return to the cottage, seek the old man, and by my representations win him to my party.

“These thoughts calmed me, and in the afternoon I sank into a profound sleep;  but the fever of my blood did not allow me to be visited by peaceful dreams. The horrible scene of the preceding day was forever acting before my eyes; the females were flying, and the enraged Felix tearing me from his father’s feet. I awoke exhausted; and, finding that it was already night, I crept forth from my hiding place, and went in search of food.

“When my hunger was appeased, I directed my steps towards the well-known path  that conducted to the cottage. All there was at peace. I crept into my hovel, and remained in silent expectation of the accustomed hour when the family arose.  That hour passed, the sun mounted high in the heavens, but the cottagers did not appear. I trembled violently, apprehending some dreadful misfortune. The inside  of the cottage was dark, and I heard no motion; I cannot describe the agony of this suspense.

“Presently two countrymen passed by; but, pausing near the cottage, they entered into conversation, using violent gesticulations; but I did not  understand what they said, as they spoke the language of the country, which differed from that of my protectors. Soon after, however, Felix approached with another man: I was surprised, as I knew that he had not quitted the cottage that morning, and waited anxiously to discover, from his discourse, the meaning of these unusual appearances.

“’Do you consider,’ said his companion to him, ‘that you will be obliged to  pay three months’ rent, and to lose the produce of your garden? I do not wish to take any unfair advantage, and I beg therefore that you will take some days to  consider of your determination.’

“’It is utterly useless,’ replied Felix; ‘we can never again inhabit your  cottage. The life of my father is in the greatest danger, owing to the dreadful  circumstance that I have related. My wife and my sister will never recover their  horror. I entreat you not to reason with me any more. Take possession of your  tenement, and let me fly from this place.’

“Felix trembled violently as he said this. He and his companion entered the  cottage, in which they remained for a few minutes, and then departed. I never  saw any of the family of De Lacey more.

“I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter and  stupid despair. My protectors had departed, and had broken the only link that  held me to the world. For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred  filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them; but, allowing myself to  be borne away by the stream, I bent my mind towards injury and death. When I  thought of my friends, of the mild voice of De Lacey, the gentle eyes of Agatha,  and the exquisite beauty of the Arabian, these thoughts vanished, and a gush of tears somewhat soothed me. But again, when I reflected that they had spurned and deserted me, anger returned, a rage of anger; and, unable to injure anything  human, I turned my fury towards inanimate objects. As night advanced, I placed a variety of combustibles around the cottage; and, after having destroyed every vestige of cultivation in the garden, I waited with forced impatience until the  moon had sunk to commence my operations.

“As the night advanced, a fierce wind arose from the woods, and quickly  dispersed the clouds that had loitered in the heavens: the blast tore along like a mighty avalanche, and produced a kind of insanity in my spirits that burst all bounds of reason and reflection. I lighted the dry branch of a tree, and danced with fury around the devoted cottage, my eyes still fixed on the western horizon, the edge of which the moon nearly touched. A part of its orb was at length hid, and I waved my brand; it sunk, and with a loud scream, I fired the straw, and heath, and bushes, which I had collected. The wind fanned the fire,  and the cottage was quickly enveloped by the flames, which clung to it, and  licked it with their forked and destroying tongues.

“As soon as I was convinced that no assistance could save any part of the  habitation, I quitted the scene and sought for refuge in the woods.

“And now, with the world before me, whither should I bend my steps? I  resolved to fly far from the scene of my misfortunes; but to me, hated and  despised, every country must be equally horrible. At length the thought of you crossed my mind. I learned from your papers that you were my father, my creator;  and to whom could I apply with more fitness than to him who had given me life? Among the lessons that Felix had bestowed upon Safie, geography had not been omitted. I had learned from these the relative situations of the different countries of the earth. You had mentioned Geneva as the name of your native town; and towards this place I resolved to proceed.

“But how was I to direct myself? I knew that I must travel in a  south-westerly direction to reach my destination; but the sun was my only guide. I did not know the names of the towns that I was to pass through, nor could I ask information from a single human being; but I did not despair. From you only could I hope for succour, although towards you I felt no sentiment but that of  hatred. Unfeeling, heartless creator! you had endowed me with perceptions and passions, and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind. But on you only had I any claim for pity and redress, and from you I determined to seek that justice which I vainly attempted to gain from any other being that wore the human form.

“My travels were long, and the sufferings I endured intense. It was late in  autumn when I quitted the district where I had so long resided. I travelled only at night, fearful of encountering the visage of a human being. Nature decayed around me, and the sun became heatless; rain and snow poured around me; mighty rivers were frozen; the surface of the earth was hard, and chill, and bare, and I found no shelter. Oh, earth! how often did I imprecate curses on the cause of my being! the mildness of my nature had fled, and all within me was turned to  gall and bitterness. The nearer I approached to your habitation, the more deeply  did I feel the spirit of revenge enkindled in my heart. Snow fell, and the  waters were hardened; but I rested not. A few incidents now and then directed me, and I possessed a map of the country; but I often wandered wide from my  path. The agony of my feelings allowed me no respite: no incident occurred from which my rage and misery could not extract its food; but a circumstance that  happened when I arrived on the confines of Switzerland, when the sun had recovered its warmth, and the earth again began to look green, confirmed in an  especial manner the bitterness and horror of my feelings.

“I generally rested during the day, and travelled only when I was secured by night from the view of man. One morning, however, finding that my path lay  through a deep wood, I ventured to continue my journey after the sun had risen; the day, which was one of the first of spring, cheered even me by the loveliness of its sunshine and the balminess of the air. I felt emotions of gentleness and  pleasure, that had long appeared dead, revive within me. Half surprised by the  novelty of these sensations, I allowed myself to be borne away by them; and, forgetting my solitude and deformity, dared to be happy. Soft tears again  bedewed my cheeks, and I even raised my humid eyes with thankfulness towards the  blessed sun which bestowed such joy upon me.

“I continued to wind among the paths of the wood, until I came to its  boundary, which was skirted by a deep and rapid river, into which many of the  trees bent their branches, now budding with the fresh spring. Here I paused, not  exactly knowing what path to pursue, when I heard the sound of voices that induced me to conceal myself under the shade of a cypress. I was scarcely hid,  when a young girl came running towards the spot where I was concealed, laughing,  as if she ran from some one in sport. She continued her course along the  precipitous sides of the river, when suddenly her foot slipt, and she fell into  the rapid stream. I rushed from my hiding-place; and, with extreme labour from the force of the current, saved her, and dragged her to shore. She was senseless; and I endeavoured by every means in my power to restore animation, when I was suddenly interrupted by the approach of rustic, who was probably the person from whom she had playfully fled. On seeing me, he darted towards me, and  tearing the girl from my arms, hastened towards the deeper parts of the wood. I  followed speedily, hardly knew why; but when the man saw me draw near, he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body, and fired. I sunk to the ground, and my injurer, with increased swiftness, escaped into the wood.

“This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from  destruction, and as a recompense, I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound, which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind. But the agony of my wound overcame me; my pulses  paused, and I fainted.

“For some weeks I led a miserable life in the woods, endeavouring to cure the  wound which I had received. The ball had entered my shoulder, and I knew not whether it had remained there or passed through; at any rate I had no means of extracting it. My sufferings were augmented also by the oppressive sense of the  injustice and ingratitude of their infliction. My daily vows rose for revenge — a deep and deadly revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish I had endured.

“After some weeks my wound healed, and I continued my journey. The labours I endured were no longer to be alleviated by the bright sun or gentle breezes of spring; all joy was but a mockery, which insulted my desolate state, and made me feel more painfully that I was not made for the enjoyment of pleasure.

“But my toils now drew near a close; and in two months from this time I  reached the environs of Geneva.

“It was evening when I arrived, and I retired to a hiding-place among the  fields that surround it, to meditate in what manner I should apply to you. I was  oppressed by fatigue and hunger, and far too unhappy to enjoy the gentle breezes  of evening, or the prospect of the sun setting behind the stupendous mountains  of Jura.

“At this time a slight sleep relieved me from the pain of reflection, which  was disturbed by the approach of a beautiful child, who came running into the recess I had chosen, with all the sportiveness of infancy. Suddenly, as I gazed  on him, an idea seized me, that this little creature was unprejudiced, and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity. If, therefore, I  could seize him, and educate him as my companion and friend, I should not be so desolate in this peopled earth.

“Urged by this impulse, I seized on the boy as he passed and drew him towards  me. As soon as he beheld my form, he placed his hands before his eyes and  uttered a shrill scream: I drew his hand forcibly from his face, and said,  ‘Child, what is the meaning of this? I do not intend to hurt you; listen to  me.’

“He struggled violently. ‘Let me go,’ he cried; ‘monster! ugly wretch! you wish to eat me, and tear me to pieces — You are an ogre — Let me go, or I will tell my papa.’

“’Boy, you will never see your father again; you must come with me.’

“’Hideous monster! let me go. My papa is a Syndic — he is M. Frankenstein —  he will punish you. You dare not keep me.’

“’Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy — to him towards whom I have  sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.’

“The child still struggled, and loaded me with epithets which carried despair  to my heart; I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at  my feet.

“I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish  triumph: clapping my hands, I exclaimed, ‘I, too, can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him.’

“As I fixed my eyes on the child, I saw something glittering on his breast. I  took it; it was a portrait of a most lovely woman. In spite of malignity, it softened and attracted me. For a few moments I gazed with delight on her dark eyes, fringed by deep lashes, and her lovely lips; but presently my rage  returned: I remembered that I was for ever deprived of the delights that such  beautiful creatures could bestow; and that she whose resemblance I contemplated would, in regarding me, have changed that air of divine benignity to one expressive of disgust and affright.

“Can you wonder that such thoughts transported me with rage? I only wonder that at that moment, instead of venting my sensations in exclamations and agony,  I did not rush among mankind and perish in the attempt to destroy them.

“While I was overcome by these feelings, I left the spot where I had committed the murder, and seeking a more secluded hiding-place, I entered a barn which had appeared to me to be empty. A woman was sleeping on some straw; she was young: not indeed so beautiful as her whose portrait I held; but of an agreeable aspect, and blooming in the loveliness of youth and health. Here, I  thought, is one of those whose joy-imparting smiles are bestowed on all but me.  And then I bent over her, and whispered, ‘Awake, fairest, thy lover is near —  he who would give his life but to obtain one look of affection from thine eyes: my beloved, awake!’

“The sleeper stirred; a thrill of terror ran through me. Should she indeed awake, and see me, and curse me, and denounce the murderer? Thus would she  assuredly act, if her darkened eyes opened and she beheld me. The thought was madness; it stirred the fiend within me- not I, but she shall suffer: the murder  I have committed because I am forever robbed of all that she could give me, she  shall atone. The crime had its source in her: be hers the punishment! Thanks to  the lessons of Felix and the sanguinary laws of man, I had learned now to work  mischief I bent over her, and placed the portrait securely in one of the folds  of her dress. She moved again, and I fled.

“For some days I haunted the spot where these scenes had taken place;  sometimes wishing to see you, sometimes resolved to quit the world and its miseries forever. At length I wandered towards these mountains, and have ranged  through their immense recesses, consumed by a burning passion which you alone  can gratify. We may not part until you have promised to comply with my requisition. I am alone, and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one  as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you must  create.”


Chapter 17

The being finished speaking, and fixed his looks upon me in expectation of a reply. But I was bewildered, perplexed, and unable to arrange my ideas sufficiently to understand the full extent of his proposition. He continued:

“You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede.”

The latter part of his tale had kindled anew in me the anger that had died away while he narrated his peaceful life among the cottagers, and, as he said  this, I could no longer suppress the rage that burned within me.

“I do refuse it,” I replied; “and no torture shall ever extort a consent from  me. You may render me the most miserable of men, but you shall never make me  base in my own eyes. Shall I create another like yourself, whose joint  wickedness might desolate the world! Begone! I have answered you; you may  torture me, but I will never consent.”

“You are in the wrong,” replied the fiend; “and, instead of threatening, I am  content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not  shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and  triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would not call it murder if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he contemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness; and, instead of injury, I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude  at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I  will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and  chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor  finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth.”

A fiendish rage animated him as he said this; his face was wrinkled into contortions too horrible for human eyes to behold; but presently he calmed  himself and proceeded —

“I intended to reason. This passion is detrimental to me; for you do not reflect that you are the cause of its excess. If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, should return them an hundred and an hundred fold; for  that one creature’s sake, I would make peace with the whole kind! But I now  indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot be realised. What I ask of is reasonable and moderate; I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself; the  gratification is small, but it is all that I can receive, and it shall content me. It is true we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that  account we shall be more attached to one another. Our lives will not be happy,  but they will be harmless, and free from the misery I now feel. Oh! my creator,  make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see  that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my  request!”

I was moved. I shuddered when I thought of the possible consequences of my consent; but I felt that there was some justice in his argument. His tale, and the feelings he now expressed, proved him to be a creature of fine sensations;  and did I not as his maker owe him all the portion of happiness that it was in  my power to bestow? He saw my change of feeling and continued —

“If you consent, neither you nor any other human being shall ever see us again: I will go to the vast wilds of South America. My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment. My companion will be of the same nature as myself, and will be content with the same fare. We shall make our bed of dried  leaves; the sun will shine on us as on man, and will ripen our food. The picture  I present to you is peaceful and human, and you must feel that you could deny it only in the wantonness of power and cruelty. Pitiless as you have been towards  me, I now see compassion in your eyes; me seize the favourable moment, and  persuade you to promise what. I so ardently desire.”

“You propose,” replied I, “to fly from the habitations of man, to dwell in those wilds where the beasts of the field will be your only companions. How can  you, who long for the love and sympathy of man, persevere in this exile? You  will return, and again seek their kindness, and you will meet with their detestation; your evil passions will be renewed, and you will then have a  companion to aid you in the task of destruction. This may not be: cease to argue the point, for I cannot consent.”

“How inconstant are your feelings! but a moment ago you were moved by my representations, and why do you again harden yourself to my complaints? I swear to you, by the earth which I inhabit, and by you that made me, that, with the companion you bestow, I will quit the neighbourhood of man, and dwell as it may  chance in the most savage of places. My evil passions will have fled, for I shall meet with sympathy! my life will flow quietly away, and, in my dying  moments, I shall not curse my maker.”

His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him, and sometimes  felt a wish to console him; but when I looked upon him, when I saw the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened, and my feelings were altered to  those of horror and hatred. I tried to stifle these sensations; I thought that,  as I could not sympathise with him, I had no right to withhold from him the small portion of happiness which was yet in my power to bestow.

“You swear,” I said, “to be harmless; but have you not already shown a degree  of malice that should reasonably make me distrust you? May not even this be a feint that will increase your triumph by affording a wider scope for your  revenge.”

“How is this? I must not be trifled with: and I demand an answer. If I have  no ties and no affections, hatred and vice must be my portion; the love of  another will destroy the cause of my crimes, and I shall become a thing of whose  existence every one will be ignorant. My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor; and my virtues will necessarily arise when I live in  communion with an equal. I shall feel the affections of a sensitive being, and become linked to the chain of existence and events, from which I am now excluded.”

I paused some time to reflect on all he had related, and the various arguments which he had employed. I thought of the promise of virtues which he had displayed on the opening of his existence, and the subsequent blight of all  kindly feeling by the loathing and scorn which his protectors had manifested  towards him. His power and threats were not omitted in my calculations: a  creature who could exist in the ice-caves of the glaciers, and hide himself from  pursuit among the ridges of inaccessible precipices, was a being possessing  faculties it would be vain to cope with. After a long pause of reflection, I  concluded that the justice due both to him and my fellow-creatures demanded of  me that I should comply with his request. Turning to him, therefore, I said —

“I consent to your demand, on your solemn oath to quit Europe for ever, and  every other place in the neighbourhood of man, as soon as I shall deliver into your hands a female who will accompany you in your exile.”

“I swear,” he cried, “by the sun, and by the blue sky of Heaven, and by the  fire of love that burns my heart, that if you grant my prayer, while they exist  you shall never behold me again. Depart to your home, and commence your labours:  I shall watch their progress with unutterable anxiety; and fear not but that when you are ready I shall appear.”

Saying this, he suddenly quitted me, fearful, perhaps, of any change in my sentiments. I saw him descend the mountain with greater speed than the flight of an eagle, and quickly lost among the undulations of the sea of ice.

His tale had occupied the whole day; and the sun was upon the verge of the horizon when he departed. I knew that I ought to hasten my descent towards the valley, as I should soon be encompassed in darkness; but my heart was heavy, and my steps slow. The labour of winding among the little paths of the mountains, and fixing my feet firmly as I advanced, perplexed me, occupied as I was by the emotions which the occurrences of the day had produced. Night was far advanced when I came to the half-way resting-place, and seated myself beside the  fountain. The stars shone at intervals, as the clouds passed from over them the  dark pines rose before me, and every here and there a broken tree lay on the  ground: it was a scene of wonderful solemnity, and stirred strange thoughts  within me. I wept bitterly; and clasping my hands in agony, I exclaimed, “Oh!  stars, and clouds, and winds, ye are all about to mock me: if ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory; let me become as nought; but if not, depart, leave  me in darkness.”

These were wild and miserable thoughts; but I cannot describe to you how the eternal twinkling of the stars weighed upon me, and how I listened to every  blast of wind as if it were a dull ugly siroc on its way to consume me.

Morning dawned before I arrived at the village of Chamounix; I took no rest, but returned immediately to Geneva. Even in my own heart I could give no  expression to my sensations — they weighed on me with a mountain’s weight, and their excess destroyed my agony beneath them. Thus I returned home, and entering the house, presented myself to the family. My haggard and wild appearance awoke  intense alarm; but I answered no question, scarcely did I speak. I felt as if I  were placed under a ban — as if I had no right to claim their sympathies — as if never more might I enjoy companionship with them. Yet even thus I loved them  to adoration; and to save them, I resolved to dedicate myself to my most abhorred task. The prospect of such an occupation made every other circumstance of existence pass before me like a dream; and that thought only had to me the  reality of life.
 


Chapter 18

Day after day, week after week, passed away on my return to Geneva; and I could not collect the courage to recommence my work. I feared the  vengeance of the disappointed fiend, yet I was unable to overcome my repugnance to the task which was enjoined me. I found that I could not compose a female without again devoting several months to profound study and laborious  disquisition. I had heard of some discoveries having been made by an English  philosopher, the knowledge of which was material to my success, and I sometimes  thought of obtaining my father’s consent to visit England for this purpose; but I clung to every pretence of delay, and shrunk from taking the first step in an undertaking whose immediate necessity began to appear less absolute to me. A change indeed had taken place in me: my health, which had hitherto declined, was now much restored; and my spirits, when unchecked by the memory of my unhappy promise, rose proportionably. My father saw this change with pleasure, and he turned his thoughts towards the best method of eradicating the remains of my melancholy, which every now and then would return by fits, and with a devouring  blackness overcast the approaching sunshine. At these moments I took refuge in the most perfect solitude. I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little  boat, watching the clouds, and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless. But the fresh air and bright sun seldom failed to restore me to  some degree of composure; and, on my return, I met the salutations of my friends with a readier smile and a more cheerful heart.

It was after my return from one of these rambles, that my father, calling me aside, thus addressed me: —

“I am happy to remark, my dear son, that you have resumed your former  pleasures, and seem to be returning to yourself. And yet you are still unhappy,  and still avoid our society. For some time I was lost in conjecture as to the  cause of this; but yesterday an idea struck me, and if it is well founded, I  conjure you to avow it. Reserve on such a point would be not only useless, but  draw down treble misery on us all.”

I trembled violently at this exordium, and my father continued:

“I confess, my son, that I have always looked forward to your marriage with  our dear Elizabeth as the tie of our domestic comfort, and the stay of my declining years. You were attached to each other from your earliest infancy; you studied together, and appeared, in dispositions and tastes, entirely suited to one another. But so blind is the experience of man that what I conceived to be  the best assistants to my plan may have entirely destroyed it. You, perhaps,  regard her as your sister, without any wish that she might become your wife. Nay, you may have met with another whom you may love; and, considering yourself as bound in honour to Elizabeth, this struggle may occasion the poignant misery  which you appear to feel.”

“My dear father, reassure yourself I love my cousin tenderly and sincerely. I  never saw any woman who excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and  affection. My future hopes and prospects are entirely bound up in the expectation of our union.”

“The expression of your sentiments on this subject, my dear Victor, gives me more pleasure than I have for some time experienced. If you feel thus, we shall  assuredly be happy, however present events may cast a gloom over us. But it is this gloom, which appears to have taken so strong a hold of your mind, that I wish to dissipate. Tell me, therefore, whether you object to an immediate  solemnisation of the marriage. We have been unfortunate, and recent events have drawn us from that every-day tranquillity befitting my years and infirmities.  You are younger; yet I do not suppose, possessed as you are of a competent  fortune, that an early marriage would at all interfere with any future plans of  honour and utility that you may have formed. Do not suppose, however, that I wish to dictate happiness to you, or that a delay on your part would cause me any serious uneasiness. Interpret my words with candour, and answer me, I  conjure you, with confidence and sincerity.”

I listened to my father in silence, and remained for some time incapable of  offering any reply. I revolved rapidly in my mind a multitude of thoughts, and endeavoured to arrive at some conclusion. Alas! to me the idea of an immediate union with my Elizabeth was one of horror and dismay. I was bound by a solemn  promise, which I had not yet fulfilled, and dared not break; or, if I did, what  manifold miseries might not impend over me and my devoted family! Could I enter  into a festival with this deadly weight yet hanging round my neck, and bowing me  to the ground? I must perform my engagement and let the monster depart with his  mate, before I allowed myself to enjoy the delight of an union from which I  expected peace.

I remembered also the necessity imposed upon me of either journeying to  England, or entering into a long correspondence with those philosophers of that country, whose knowledge and discoveries were of indispensable use to me in my  present undertaking. The latter method of obtaining the desired intelligence was dilatory and unsatisfactory: besides, I had an insurmountable aversion to the idea of engaging myself in my loathsome task in my father’s house, while in  habits of familiar intercourse with those I loved. I knew that a thousand fearful accidents might occur, the slightest of which would disclose a tale to thrill all connected with me with horror. I was aware also that I should often  lose all self-command, all capacity of hiding the harrowing sensations that  would possess me during the progress of my unearthly occupation. I must absent  myself from all I loved while thus employed. Once commenced, it would quickly be  achieved, and I might be restored to my family in peace and happiness. My  promise fulfilled, the monster would depart forever. Or (so my fond fancy imaged) some accident might meanwhile occur to destroy him, and put an end to my slavery for ever.

These feelings dictated my answer to my father. I expressed a wish to visit  England; but, concealing the true reasons of this request, I clothed my desires  under a guise which excited no suspicion, while I urged my desire with an  earnestness that easily induced my father to comply. After so long a period of  an absorbing melancholy, that resembled madness in its intensity and effects, he  was glad to find that I was capable of taking pleasure in the idea of such a journey, and he hoped that change of scene and varied amusement would, before my return, have restored me entirely to myself.

The duration of my absence was left to my own choice; a few months, or at  most a year, was the period contemplated. One paternal kind precaution he had taken to ensure my having a companion. Without previously communicating with me, he had, in concert with Elizabeth, arranged that Clerval should join me at  Strasburgh. This interfered with the solitude I coveted for the prosecution of my task; yet at the commencement of my journey the presence of my friend could in no way be an impediment, and truly I rejoiced that thus I should be saved many hours of lonely, maddening reflection. Nay, Henry might stand between me and the intrusion of my foe. If I were alone, would he not at times force his abhorred presence on me, to remind me of my task, or to contemplate its  progress?

To England, therefore, I was bound, and it was understood that my union with Elizabeth should take place immediately on my return. My father’s age rendered  him extremely averse to delay. For myself, there was one reward I promised  myself from my detested toils — one consolation for my unparalleled sufferings;  it was the prospect of that day when, enfranchised from my miserable slavery, I might claim Elizabeth, and forget the past in my union with her.

I now made arrangements for my journey; but one feeling haunted me, which  filled me with fear and agitation. During my absence I should leave my friends unconscious of the existence of their enemy, and unprotected from his attacks, exasperated as he might be by my departure. But he had promised to follow me wherever I might go; and would he not accompany me to England? This imagination  was dreadful in itself, but soothing, inasmuch as it supposed the safety of my friends. I was agonised with the idea of the possibility that the reverse of this might happen. But through the whole period during which I was the slave of my creature, I allowed myself to be governed by the impulses of the moment; and my present sensations strongly intimated that the fiend would follow me, and exempt my family from the danger of his machinations.

It was in the latter end of September that I again quitted my native country.  My journey had been my own suggestion, and Elizabeth, therefore, acquiesced: but  she was filled with disquiet at the idea of my suffering, away from her, the  inroads of misery and grief. It had been her care which provided me a companion in Clerval — and yet a man is blind to a thousand minute circumstances, which call forth a woman’s sedulous attention. She longed to bid me hasten my return,  — a thousand conflicting emotions rendered her mute as she bade me a tearful silent farewell.

I threw myself into the carriage that was to convey me away, hardly knowing  whither I was going, and careless of what was passing around. I remembered only, and it was with a bitter anguish that I reflected on it, to order that my chemical instruments should be packed to go with me. Filled with dreary  imaginations, I passed through many beautiful and majestic scenes; but my eyes  were fixed and unobserving. I could only think of the bourne of my travels, and the work which was to occupy me whilst they endured.

After some days spent in listless indolence, during which I traversed many leagues, I arrived at Strasburgh, where I waited two days for Clerval. He came.  Alas, how great was the contrast between us! He was alive to every new scene; joyful when he saw the beauties of the setting sun, and more happy when he  beheld it rise, and recommence a new day. He pointed out to me the shifting  colours of the landscape, and the appearances of the sky. “This is what it is to  live,” he cried, “now I enjoy existence! But you, Frankenstein, wherefore are  you desponding and sorrowful!” In truth, I was occupied by gloomy thoughts, and neither saw the descent of the evening star, nor the golden sunrise reflected in  the Rhine. — And you, my friend, would be far more amused with the journal of  Clerval, who observed the scenery with an eye of feeling and delight, than in listening to my reflections. I, a miserable wretch, haunted by a curse that shut up every avenue to enjoyment.

We had agreed to descend the Rhine in a boat from Strasburgh to Rotterdam, whence we might take shipping for London. During this voyage, we passed many willowy islands, and saw several beautiful towns. We stayed a day at Manheim, and, on the fifth from our departure from Strasburgh, arrived at Mayence. The course of the Rhine below Mayence becomes much more picturesque. The river  descends rapidly, and winds between hills, not high, but steep, and of beautiful forms. We saw many ruined castles standing on the edges of precipices, surrounded by black woods, high and inaccessible. This part of the Rhine,  indeed, presents a singularly variegated landscape. In one spot you view rugged hills, ruined castles overlooking tremendous precipices, with the dark Rhine rushing beneath; and, on the sudden turn of a promontory, flourishing vineyards, with green sloping banks, and a meandering river, and populous towns occupy the  scene.

We travelled at the time of the vintage, and heard the song of the labourers,  as we glided down the stream. Even I, depressed in mind, and my spirits continually agitated by gloomy feelings, even I was pleased. I lay at the bottom  of the boat, and, as I gazed on the cloudless blue sky, I seemed to drink in a tranquillity to which I had long been a stranger. And if these were my  sensations, who can describe those of Henry? He felt as if he had been  transported to Fairyland, and enjoyed a happiness seldom tasted by man. “I have  seen,” he said, “the most beautiful scenes of my own country; I have visited the lakes of Lucerne and Uri, where the snowy mountains descend almost perpendicularly to the water, casting black and impenetrable shades, which would  cause a gloomy and mournful appearance, were it not for the most verdant islands  that relieve the eye by their gay appearance; I have seen this lake agitated by a tempest, when the wind tore up whirlwinds of water, and gave you an idea of  what the waterspout must be on the great ocean; and the waves dash with fury the  base of the mountain, where the priest and his mistress were overwhelmed by an avalanche, and where their dying voices are still said to be heard amid the pauses of the nightly wind; I have seen the mountains of La Valais, and the Pays de Vaud: but this country, Victor, pleases me more than all those wonders. The mountains of Switzerland are more majestic and strange; but there is a charm in the banks of this divine river, that I never before saw equalled. Look at that castle which overhangs yon precipice; and that also on the island, almost concealed amongst the foliage of those lovely trees; and now that group of labourers coming from among their vines; and that village half hid in the recess  of the mountain. Oh, surely, the spirit that inhabits and guards this place has  a soul more in harmony with man than those who pile the glacier, or retire to  the inaccessible peaks of the mountains of our own country.”

Clerval! beloved friend! even now it delights me to record your words; and to  dwell on the praise of which you are so eminently deserving. He was a being formed in the “very poetry of nature.” His wild and enthusiastic imagination was chastened by the sensibility of his heart. His soul overflowed with ardent  affections, and his friendship was of that devoted and wondrous nature that the  worldy-minded teach us to look for only in the imagination. But even human  sympathies were not sufficient to satisfy his eager mind. The scenery of external nature, which others regard only with admiration, he loved with  ardour:-< /p>

“The sounding cataract
Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their  forms, were then to him
An appetite; a feeling, and a love,
That had no  need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, or any interest
Unborrow’d from the eye.” *

And where does he now exist? Is this gentle and lovely being lost forever? Has this mind, so replete with ideas, imaginations fanciful and magnificent, which formed a world, whose existence depended on the life of its creator; —  has the mind perished? Does it now only exist in my memory? No, it is not thus;  your form so divinely wrought, and beaming with beauty, has decayed, but your  spirit still visits and consoles your unhappy friend.

Pardon this gush of sorrow; these ineffectual words are but a slight tribute to the unexampled worth of Henry, but they soothe my heart, overflowing with the anguish which his remembrance creates. I will proceed with my tale.

Beyond Cologne we descended to the plains of Holland; and we resolved to post  the remainder of our way; for the wind was contrary, and the stream of the river was too gentle to aid us.

Our journey here lost the interest arising from beautiful scenery; but we  arrived in a few days at Rotterdam, whence we proceeded by sea to England. It  was on a clear morning, in the latter days of October, that I first saw the  white cliffs of Britain. The banks of the Thames presented a new scene; they  were flat, but fertile, and almost every town was marked by the remembrance of some story. We saw Tilbury Fort, and remembered the Spanish armada; Gravesend, Woolwich, and Greenwich, places which I had heard of even in my country.

At length we saw the numerous steeples of London, St. Paul’s towering above  all, and the Tower famed in English history.

* Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey.
 


Chapter 19

London was our present point of rest; we determined to  remain several months in this wonderful and celebrated city. Clerval desired the intercourse of the men of genius and talent who flourished at this time; but this was with me a secondary object; I was principally occupied with the means of obtaining the information necessary for the completion of my promise, and quickly availed myself of the letters of introduction that I had brought with  me, addressed to the most distinguished natural philosophers.

If this journey had taken place during my days of study and happiness, it  would have afforded me inexpressible pleasure. But a blight had come over my existence, and I only visited these people for the sake of the information they  might give me on the subject in which my interest was so terribly profound.  Company was irksome to me; when alone, I could fill my mind with the sights of  heaven and earth; the voice of Henry soothed me, and I could thus cheat myself  into a transitory peace. But busy uninteresting joyous faces brought back  despair to my heart. I saw an insurmountable barrier placed between me and my fellow-men this barrier was sealed with the blood of William and Justine; and to reflect on the events connected with those names filled my soul with  anguish.

But in Clerval I saw the image of my former self; he was inquisitive, and  anxious to gain experience and instruction. The difference of manners which he observed was to him an inexhaustible source of instruction and amusement. He was  also pursuing an object he had long had in view. His design was to visit India, in the belief that he had in his knowledge of its various languages, and in the  views he had taken of its society, the means of materially assisting the  progress of European colonisation and trade. In Britain only could he further the execution of his plan. He was for ever busy; and the only check to his enjoyments was my sorrowful and dejected mind. I tried to conceal this as much as possible, that I might not debar him from the pleasures natural to one who  was entering on a new scene of life, undisturbed by any care or bitter  recollection. I often refused to accompany him, alleging another engagement,  that I might remain alone. I now also began to collect the materials necessary  for my new creation, and this was to me like the torture of single drops of  water continually falling on the head. Every thought that was devoted to it was  an extreme anguish, and every word that I spoke in allusion to it caused my lips to quiver, and my heart to palpitate.

After passing some months in London, we received a letter from a person in Scotland, who had formerly been our visitor at Geneva. He mentioned the beauties of his native country, and asked us if those were not sufficient allurements to induce us to prolong our journey as far north as Perth, where he resided.  Clerval eagerly desired to accept this invitation; and I, although I abhorred  society, wished to view again mountains and streams, and all the wondrous works with which Nature adorns her chosen dwelling-places.

We had arrived in England at the beginning of October, and it was now  February. We accordingly determined to commence our journey towards the north at  the expiration of another month. In this expedition we did not intend to follow  the great road to Edinburgh, but to visit Windsor, Oxford, Matlock, and the Cumberland lakes, resolving to arrive at the completion of this tour about the  end of July. I packed up my chemical instruments, and the materials I had  collected, resolving to finish my labours in some obscure nook in the northern  highlands of Scotland.

We quitted London on the 27th of March, and remained a few days at Windsor,  rambling in its beautiful forest. This was a new scene to us mountaineers; the majestic oaks, the quantity of game, and the herds of stately deer, were all  novelties to us.

From thence we proceeded to Oxford. As we entered this city, our minds were  filled with the remembrance of the events that had been transacted there more  than a century and a half before. It was here that Charles I. had collected his  forces. This city had remained faithful to him, after the whole nation had  forsaken his cause to join the standard of parliament and liberty. The memory of that unfortunate king, and his companions, the amiable Falkland, the insolent Goring, his queen, and son, gave a peculiar interest to every part of the city which they might be supposed to have inhabited. The spirit of elder days found a dwelling here, and we delighted to trace its footsteps. If these feelings had not found an imaginary gratification, the appearance of the city had yet in  itself sufficient beauty to obtain our admiration. The colleges are ancient and picturesque; the streets are almost magnificent; and the lovely Isis, which  flows beside it through meadows of exquisite verdure, is spread forth into a  placid expanse of waters, which reflects its majestic assemblage of towers, and spires, and domes, embosomed among aged trees.

I enjoyed this scene; and yet my enjoyment was embittered both by the memory of the past, and the anticipation of the future. I was formed for peaceful  happiness. During my youthful days discontent never visited my mind; and if I  was ever overcome by ennui, the sight of what is beautiful in nature, or the study of what is excellent and sublime in the productions of man, could always interest my heart, and communicate elasticity to my spirits. But I am a blasted  tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit, what I shall soon cease to be — a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others, and intolerable to myself.

We passed a considerable period at Oxford, rambling among its environs, and  endeavouring to identify every spot which might relate to the most animating  epoch of English history. Our little voyages of discovery were often prolonged by the successive objects that presented themselves. We visited the tomb of the illustrious Hampden, and the field on which that patriot fell. For a moment my  soul was elevated from its debasing and miserable fears, to contemplate the  divine ideas of liberty and self-sacrifice, of which these sights were the  monuments and the remembrancers. For an instant I dared to shake off my chains,  and look around me with a free and lofty spirit; but the iron had eaten into my flesh, and I sank again, trembling and hopeless, into my miserable self.

We left Oxford with regret, and proceeded to Matlock, which was our next place of rest. The country in the neighbourhood of this village resembles, to a greater degree, the scenery of Switzerland; but everything is on a lower scale, and the green hills want the crown of distant white Alps, which always attend on the piny mountains of my native country. We visited the wondrous cave, and the little cabinets of natural history, where the curiosities are disposed in the  same manner as in the collections at Servox and Chamounix. The latter name made me tremble when pronounced by Henry; and I hastened to quit Matlock, with which that terrible scene was thus associated.

From Derby, still journeying northward, we passed two months in Cumberland and Westmoreland. I could now almost fancy mr self among the Swiss mountains.  The little patches of snow which yet lingered on the northern sides of the  mountains, the lakes, and the dashing of the rocky streams, were all familiar  and dear sights to me. Here also we made some acquaintances, who almost contrived to cheat me into happiness. The delight of Clerval was proportionably greater than mine; his mind expanded in the company of men of talent, and he found in his own nature greater capacities and resources than he could have  imagined himself to have possessed while he associated with his inferiors. “I  could pass my life here,” said he to me; “and among these mountains I should scarcely regret Switzerland and the Rhine.”

But he found that a traveller’s life is one that includes much pain amidst its enjoyments. His feelings are forever on the stretch; and when he begins to sink into repose, he finds himself obliged to quit that on which he rests in  pleasure for something new, which again engages his attention, and which also he forsakes for other novelties.

We had scarcely visited the various lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, and  conceived an affection for some of the inhabitants, when the period of our appointment with our Scotch friend approached, and we left them to travel on.  For my own part I was not sorry. I had now neglected my promise for some time,  and I feared the effects of the daemon’s disappointment. He might remain in Switzerland, and wreak his vengeance on my relatives. This idea pursued me, and  tormented me at every moment from which I might otherwise have snatched repose  and peace. I waited for my letters with feverish impatience: if they were  delayed, I was miserable, and overcome by a thousand fears; and when they arrived, and I saw the superscription of Elizabeth or my father, I hardly dared to read and ascertain my fate. Sometimes I thought that the fiend followed me,  and might expedite my remissness by murdering my companion. When these thoughts  possessed me, I would not quit Henry for a moment, but followed him as his  shadow, to protect him from the fancied rage of his destroyer. I felt as if I had committed some great crime, the consciousness of which haunted me. I was guiltless, but I had indeed drawn down a horrible curse upon my head, as mortal  as that of crime.

I visited Edinburgh with languid eyes and mind; and yet that city might have interested the most unfortunate being. Clerval did not like it so well as Oxford: for the antiquity of the latter city was more pleasing to him. But the beauty and regularity of the new town of Edinburgh, its romantic castle, and its environs, the most delightful in the world, Arthur’s Seat, St. Bernard’s Well,  and the Pentland Hills, compensated him for the change, and filled him with cheerfulness and admiration. But I was impatient to arrive at the termination of my journey.

We left Edinburgh in a week, passing through Coupar, St. Andrew’s, and along the banks of the Tay, to Perth, where our friend expected us. But I was in no mood to laugh and talk with strangers, or enter into their feelings or plans with the good humour expected from a guest; and accordingly I told Clerval that  I wished to make the tour of Scotland alone. “Do you,” said I, “enjoy yourself, and let this be our rendezvous. I may be absent a month or two; but do not interfere with my motions, I entreat you: leave me to peace and solitude for a short time; and when I return, I hope it will be with a lighter heart, more  congenial to your own temper.”

Henry wished to dissuade me; but, seeing me bent on this plan, ceased to remonstrate. He entreated me to write often. “I had rather be with you,” he  said, “in your solitary rambles, than with these Scotch people, whom I do not  know: hasten then, my dear friend, to return, that I may again feel myself  somewhat at home, which I cannot do in your absence.”

Having parted from my friend, I determined to visit some remote spot of  Scotland, and finish my work in solitude. I did not doubt but that the monster  followed me, and would discover himself me when I should have finished, that he  might receive his companion.

With this resolution I traversed the northern highlands, and fixed on one of the remotest of the Orkneys as the scene of my labours. It was a place fitted  for such a work, being hardly more than a rock, whose high sides were continually beaten upon by the waves. The soil was barren, scarcely affording pasture for a few miserable cows, and oatmeal for its inhabitants, which  consisted of five persons, whose gaunt and scraggy limbs gave tokens of their miserable fare. Vegetables and bread, when they indulged in such luxuries, and even fresh water, was to be procured from the mainland, which was about five  miles distant.

On the whole island there were but three miserable huts, and one of these was  vacant when I arrived. This I hired. It contained but two rooms, and these exhibited all the squalidness of the most miserable penury. The thatch had  fallen in, the walls were unplastered, and the door was off its hinges. I  ordered it to be repaired, bought some furniture, and took possession; an incident which would, doubtless, have occasioned some surprise, had not all the  senses of the cottagers been benumbed by want and squalid poverty. As it was, I  lived ungazed at and unmolested, hardly thanked for the pittance of food and  clothes which I gave; so much does suffering blunt even the coarsest sensations of men.

In this retreat I devoted the morning to labour; but in the evening, when the  weather permitted, I walked on the stony beach of the sea, to listen to the waves as they roared and dashed at my feet. It was a monotonous yet ever-changing scene. I thought of Switzerland; it was far different from this  desolate and appalling landscape. Its hills are covered with vines, and its cottages are scattered thickly in the plains. Its fair lakes reflect a blue and  gentle sky; and, when troubled by the winds, their tumult is but as the play of a lively infant, when compared to the roarings of the giant ocean.

In this manner I distributed my occupations when I first arrived; but, as I  proceeded in my labour, it became every day more horrible and irksome to me. Sometimes I could not prevail on myself to enter my laboratory for several days; and at other times I toiled day and night in order to complete my work. It was, indeed, a filthy process in which I was engaged. During my first experiment, a  kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment; my mind was intently fixed on the consummation of my labour, and my eyes were shut  to the horror of my proceedings. But now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands.

Thus situated, employed in the most detestable occupation, immersed in a solitude where nothing could for an instant call my attention from the actual scene in which I was engaged, my spirits became unequal; I grew restless and nervous. Every moment I feared to meet my persecutor. Sometimes I sat with my  eyes fixed on the ground, fearing to raise them, lest they should encounter the object which I so much dreaded to behold. I feared to wander from the sight of my fellow-creatures, lest when alone he should come to claim his companion.

In the meantime I worked on, and my labour was already considerably advanced.  I looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager hope, which I dared  not trust myself to question, but which was intermixed with obscure forebodings  of evil, that made my heart sicken in my bosom.


Chapter 20

I sat one evening in my laboratory; the sun had set, and the moon was just rising from the sea; I had not sufficient light for my employment,  and I remained idle, in a pause of consideration of whether I should leave my  labour for the night, or hasten its conclusion by an unremitting attention to it. As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me, which led me to consider the effects of what I was now doing. Three years before I was engaged in the same  manner, and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my  heart, and filled it for ever with the bitterest remorse. I was now about to form another being, of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate, and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness. He had sworn to quit the neighbourhood of man, and  hide himself in deserts; but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to  become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact  made before her creation. They might even hate each other; the creature who  already lived loathed his own deformity, and might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form? She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him, and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being  deserted by one of his own species.

Even if they were to leave Europe, and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted  would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who  might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and  full of terror. Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I  had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats: but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace, at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the  whole human race.

I trembled, and my heart failed within me; when, on looking up, I saw, by the  light of the moon, the daemon at the casement. A ghastly grin wrinkled his lips as he gazed on me, where I sat fulfilling the task which he had allotted to me. Yes, he had followed me in my travels; he had loitered in forests, hid himself in caves, or taken refuge in wide and desert heaths; and he now came to mark my  progress, and claim the fulfillment of my promise.

As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and  treachery. I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise to create another  like him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was  engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he  depended for happiness, and, with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew.

I left the room, and, locking the door, made a solemn vow in my own heart  never to resume my labours; and then, with trembling steps, sought my own apartment. I was alone; none were near me to dissipate the gloom, and relieve me from the sickening oppression of the most terrible reveries.

Several hours passed, and I remained near my window gazing on the sea; it was  almost motionless, for the winds were hushed, and all nature reposed under the  eye of the quiet moon. A few fishing vessels alone specked the water, and now and then the gentle breeze wafted the sound of voices, as the fishermen called  to one another. I felt the silence, although I was hardly conscious of its  extreme profundity, until my ear was suddenly arrested by the paddling of oars near the shore, and a person landed close to my house.

In a few minutes after, I heard the creaking of my door, as if some one  endeavoured to open it softly. I trembled from head to foot; I felt a presentiment of who it was, and wished to rouse one of the peasants who dwelt in a cottage not far from mine; but I was overcome by the sensation of helplessness, so often felt in frightful dreams, when you in vain endeavour to fly from an impending danger, and was rooted to the spot.

Presently I heard the sound of footsteps along the passage; the door opened, and the wretch whom I dreaded appeared. Shutting the door, he approached me, and  said, in a smothered voice —

“You have destroyed the work which you began; what is it that you intend? Do you dare to break your promise? I have endured toil and misery: I left Switzerland with you; I crept along the shores of the Rhine, among its willow  islands, and over the summits of its hills. I have dwelt many months in the heaths of England, and among the deserts of Scotland. I have endured incalculable fatigue, and cold, and hunger; do you dare destroy my hopes?”

“Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness.”

“Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You  are my creator, but I am your master; — obey!”

“The hour of my irresolution is past, and the period of your power is  arrived. Your threats cannot move me to do an act of wickedness; but they  confirm me in a determination of not creating you a companion in vice. Shall I, in cool blood, set loose upon the earth a daemon, whose delight is in death and  wretchedness? Begone! I am firm, and your words will only exasperate my  rage.”

The monster saw my determination in my face, and gnashed his teeth in the  impotence of anger. “Shall each man,” cried he, “find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they  were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! you may hate; but beware! your  hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness for ever. Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You can blast my other passions; but revenge remains — revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die; but first  you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful. I will watch with the  wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of  the injuries you inflict.”

“Devil, cease; and do not poison the air with these sounds of malice. I have declared my resolution to you, and I am no coward to bend beneath words. Leave me; I am inexorable.”

“It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night.”

I started forward, and exclaimed, “Villain! before you sign my death-warrant,  be sure that you are yourself safe.”

I would have seized him; but he eluded me, and quitted the house with  precipitation. In a few moments I saw him in his boat, which shot across the waters with an arrowy swiftness and was soon lost amidst the waves.

All was again silent; but his words rung in my ears. I burned with rage to pursue the murderer of my peace and precipitate him into the ocean. I walked up  and down my room hastily and perturbed, while my imagination conjured up a  thousand images to torment and sting me. Why had I not followed him, and closed with him in mortal strife? But I had suffered him to depart, and he had directed  his course towards the main land. I shuddered to think who might be the next victim sacrificed to his insatiate revenge. And then I thought again of his  words — “I will be with you on your wedding-night.” That then was the period  fixed for the fulfillment of my destiny. In that hour I should die, and at once satisfy and extinguish his malice. The prospect did not move me to fear; yet when I thought of my beloved Elizabeth, — of her tears and endless sorrow, when she should find her lover so barbarously snatched from her, — tears, the first  I had shed for many months, streamed from my eyes, and I resolved not to fall  before my enemy without a bitter struggle.

The night passed away, and the sun rose from the ocean; my feelings became calmer, if it may be called calmness, when the violence of rage sinks into the depths of despair. I left the house, the horrid scene of the last night’s contention, and walked on the beach of the sea, which I almost regarded as an  insuperable barrier between me and my fellow-creatures; nay, a wish that such  should prove the fact stole across me. I desired that I might pass my life on that barren rock, wearily, it is true, but uninterrupted by any sudden shock of misery. If I returned, it was to be sacrificed, or to see those whom I most  loved die under the grasp of a daemon whom I had myself created.

I walked about the isle like a restless spectre, separated from all it loved,  and miserable in the separation. When it became noon, and the sun rose higher, I  lay down on the grass, and was overpowered by a deep sleep. I had been awake the  whole of the preceding night, my nerves were agitated, and my eyes inflamed by watching and misery. The sleep into which I now sunk refreshed me; and when I awoke, I again felt as if I belonged to a race of human beings like myself, and  I began to reflect upon what had passed with greater composure; yet still the words of the fiend rung in my ears like a death-knell, they appeared like a  dream, yet distinct and oppressive as a reality.

The sun had far descended, and I still sat on the shore, satisfying my appetite, which had become ravenous, with an oaten cake, when I saw a  fishing-boat land close to me, and one of the men brought me a packet; it  contained letters from Geneva, and one from Clerval, entreating me to join him. He said that he was wearing away his time fruitlessly where he was; that letters from the friends he had formed in London desired his return to complete the  negotiation they had entered into for his Indian enterprise. He could not any  longer delay his departure; but as his journey to London might be followed, even  sooner than he now conjectured, by his longer voyage, he entreated me to bestow as much of my society on him as I could spare. He besought me, therefore, to  leave my solitary isle, and to meet him at Perth, that we might proceed  southwards together. This letter in a degree recalled me to life, and I determined to quit my island at the expiration of two days.

Yet, before I departed, there was a task to perform, on which I shuddered to reflect: I must pack up my chemical instruments; and for that purpose I must enter the room which had been the scene of my odious work, and I must handle those utensils, the sight of which was sickening to me. The next morning, at  daybreak, I summoned sufficient courage, and unlocked the door of my laboratory. The remains of the half-finished creature, whom I had destroyed, lay scattered  on the floor, and I almost felt as if I had mangled the living flesh of a human being. I paused to collect myself, and then entered the chamber. With trembling hand I conveyed the instruments out of the room; but I reflected that I ought  not to leave the relics of my work to excite the horror and suspicion of the peasants; and I accordingly put them into a basket, with a great quantity of  stones, and, laying them up, determined to throw them into the sea that very night; and in the meantime I sat upon the beach, employed in cleaning and  arranging my chemical apparatus.

Nothing could be more complete than the alteration that had taken place in my  feelings since the night of the appearance of the daemon. I had before regarded my promise with a gloomy despair, as a thing that, with whatever consequences,  must be fulfilled; but I now felt as if a film had been taken from before my  eyes, and that I, for the first time, saw clearly. The idea of renewing my  labours did not for one instant occur to me; the threat I had heard weighed on  my thoughts, but I did not reflect that a voluntary act of mine could avert it.  I had resolved in my own mind, that to create another like the fiend I had first  made would be an act of the basest and most atrocious selfishness; and I  banished from my mind every thought that could lead to a different  conclusion.

Between two and three in the morning the moon rose; and I then, putting my basket aboard a little skill, sailed out about four miles from the shore. The  scene was perfectly solitary: a few boats were returning towards land, but I sailed away from them. I felt as if I was about the commission of a dreadful crime, and avoided with shuddering anxiety any encounter with my fellow-creatures. At one time the moon, which had before been clear, was suddenly overspread by a thick cloud, and I took advantage of the moment of darkness, and cast my basket into the sea: I listened to the gurgling sound as it sunk, and then sailed away from the spot. The sky became clouded; but the air  was pure, although chilled by the north-east breeze that was then rising. But it refreshed me, and filled me with such agreeable sensations, that I resolved to  prolong my stay on the water; and, fixing the rudder in a direct position,  stretched myself at the bottom of the boat. Clouds hid the moon, everything was  obscure, and I heard only the sound of the boat, as its keel cut through the  waves; the murmur lulled me, and in a short time I slept soundly.

I do not know how long I remained in this situation, but when I awoke I found  that the sun had already mounted considerably. The wind was high, and the waves continually threatened the safety of my little skill. I found that the wind was north-east, and must have driven me far from the coast from which I had embarked. I endeavoured to change my course, but quickly found that, if I again made the attempt, the boat would be instantly filled with water. Thus situated,  my only resource was to drive before the wind. I confess that I felt a few sensations of terror. I had no compass with me, and was so slenderly acquainted  with the geography of this part of the world, that the sun was of little benefit  to me. I might be driven into the wide Atlantic, and feel all the tortures of starvation, or be swallowed up in the immeasurable waters that roared and  buffeted around me. I had already been out many hours, and felt the torment of a  burning thirst, a prelude to my other sufferings. I looked on the heavens, which were covered by clouds that flew before the wind, only to be replaced by others:  I looked upon the sea, it was to be my grave. “Fiend,” I exclaimed, “your task  is already fulfilled!” I thought of Elizabeth, of my father, and of Clerval; all  left behind, on whom the monster might satisfy his sanguinary and merciless passions. This idea plunged me into a revery, so despairing and frightful, that  even now, when the scene is on the point of closing before me forever, I shudder  to reflect on it.

Some hours passed thus; but by degrees, as the sun declined towards the  horizon, the wind died away into a gentle breeze, and the sea became free from breakers. But these gave place to a heavy swell: I felt sick, and hardly able to  hold the rudder, when suddenly I saw a line of high land towards the south.

Almost spent, as I was, by fatigue, and the dreadful suspense I endured for  several hours, this sudden certainty of life rushed like a flood of warm joy to  my heart, and tears gushed from my eyes.

How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have  of life even in the excess of misery! I constructed another sail with a part of  my dress, and eagerly steered my course towards the land. It had a wild and rocky appearance; but, as I approached nearer, I easily perceived the traces of cultivation. I saw vessels near the shore, and found myself suddenly transported back to the neighbourhood of civilised man. I carefully traced the windings of  the land, and hailed a steeple which I at length saw issuing from behind a small  promontory. As I was in a state of extreme debility, I resolved to sail directly towards the town, as a place where I could most easily procure nourishment.  Fortunately I had money with me. As I turned the promontory, I perceived a small  neat town and a good harbour, which I entered, my heart bounding with joy at my unexpected escape.

As I was occupied in fixing the boat and arranging the sails several people  crowded towards the spot. They seemed much surprised at my appearance; but,  instead of offering me any assistance, whispered together with gestures that at any other time might have produced in me a slight sensation of alarm. As it was,  I merely remarked that they spoke English; and I therefore addressed them in  that language: “My good friends,” said I, “will you be so kind as to tell me the  name of this town, and inform me where I am?”

“You will know that soon enough,” replied a man with a hoarse voice. “May be you are come to a place that will not prove much to your taste; but you will not be consulted as to your quarters, promise you.”

I was exceedingly surprised on receiving so rude an answer from a stranger;  and I was also disconcerted on perceiving the frowning and angry countenances of  his companions. “Why do you answer me so roughly?” I replied; “surely it is not  the custom of Englishmen to receive strangers so inhospitably.”

“I do not know,” said the man, “what the custom of the English may be; but it  is the custom of the Irish to hate villains.”

While this strange dialogue continued, I perceived the crowd rapidly increase. Their faces expressed a mixture of curiosity and anger, which annoyed, and in some degree alarmed me. I inquired the way to the inn; but no one  replied. I then moved forward, and a murmuring sound arose from the crowd as  they followed and surrounded me; when an ill-looking man approaching, tapped me on the shoulder, and said, “Come sir, you must follow me to Mr. Kirwin, to give  an account of yourself.”

“Who is Mr. Kirwin? Why am I to give an account of myself? Is not this a free  country?”

“Ay, sir, free enough for honest folks. Mr. Kirwin is a magistrate; and you  are to give an account of the death of a gentleman who was found murdered here  last night.”

This answer startled me; but I presently recovered myself. I was innocent; that could easily be proved: accordingly I followed my conductor in silence, and  was led to one of the best houses in the town. I was ready to sink from fatigue  and hunger; but, being surrounded by a crowd, I thought it politic to rouse all  my strength, that no physical debility might be construed into apprehension or  conscious guilt. Little did I then expect the calamity that was in a few moments  to overwhelm me, and extinguish in horror and despair all fear of ignominy or  death.

I must pause here; for it requires all my fortitude to recall the memory of  the frightful events which I am about to relate, in proper detail, to my  recollection.


Chapter 21

I was soon introduced into the presence of the magistrate, an old benevolent man, with calm and mild manners. He looked upon me, however,  with some degree of severity: and then, turning towards my conductors, he asked  who appeared as witnesses on this occasion.

About half a dozen men came forward; and one being selected by the magistrate, he deposed that he had been out fishing the night before with his son and brother-in-law, Daniel Nugent, when, about ten o’clock, they observed a strong northerly blast rising, and they accordingly put in for port. It was a  very dark night, as the moon had not yet risen; they did not land at the  harbour, but, as they had been accustomed, at a creek about two miles below. He walked on first, carrying a part of the fishing tackle, and his companions followed him at some distance. As he was proceeding along the sands, he struck his foot against something, and fell at his length on the ground. His companions came up to assist him; and, by the light of their lantern, they found that he had fallen on the body of a man who was to all appearance dead. Their first supposition was that it was the corpse of some person who had been drowned, and  was thrown on shore by the waves; but, on examination, they found that the  clothes were not wet, and even that the body was not then cold. They instantly  carried it to the cottage of an old woman near the spot, and endeavoured, but in  vain, to restore it to life. It appeared to be a handsome young man, about five and twenty years of age. He had apparently been strangled; for there was no sign of any violence, except the black mark of fingers on his neck.

The first part of this deposition did not in the least interest me; but when the mark of the fingers was mentioned, I remembered the murder of my brother,  and felt myself extremely agitated; my limbs trembled, and a mist came over my eyes, which obliged me to lean on a chair for support. The magistrate observed me with a keen eye, and of course drew an unfavourable augury from my  manner.

The son confirmed his father’s account: but when Daniel Nugent was called, he  swore positively that, just before the fall of his companion, he saw a boat, with a single man in it, at a short distance from the shore; and, as far as he could judge by the light of a few stars, it was the same boat in which I had just landed.

A woman deposed that she lived near the beach, and was standing at the door  of her cottage, waiting for the return of the fishermen, about an hour before  she heard of the discovery of the body, when she saw a boat, with only one man in it, push off from that part of the shore where the corpse was afterwards  found.

Another woman confirmed the account of the fishermen having brought the body into her house; it was not cold. They put it into a bed, and rubbed it; and Daniel went to the town for an apothecary, but life was quite gone.

Several other men were examined concerning my landing; and they agreed that, with the strong north wind that had arisen during the night, it was very  probable that I had beaten about for many hours, and had been obliged to return nearly to the same spot from which I had departed. Besides, they observed that  it appeared that I had brought the body from another place, and it was likely that, as I did not appear to know the shore, I might have put into the harbour ignorant of the distance of the town of — from the place where I had deposited  the corpse.

Mr. Kirwin on hearing this evidence, desired that I should be taken into the room where the body lay for interment, that it might be observed what effect the  sight of it would produce upon me. This idea was probably suggested by the extreme agitation I had exhibited when the mode of the murder had been  described. I was accordingly conducted, by the magistrate and several other  persons, to the inn. I could not help being struck by the strange coincidences  that had taken place during this eventful night; but knowing that I had been conversing with several persons in the island I had inhabited about the time that the body had been found, I was perfectly tranquil as to the consequences of the affair.

I entered the room where the corpse lay, and was led up to the coffin. How can I describe my sensations on beholding it? I feel yet parched with horror,  nor can I reflect on that terrible moment without shuddering and agony. The examination, the presence of the magistrate and witnesses, passed like a dream from my memory, when I saw the lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched before me. I gasped for breath; and, throwing myself on the body, I exclaimed, “Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have  already destroyed; other victims await their destiny: but you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor — “

The human frame could no longer support the agonies that I endured, and I was  carried out of the room in strong convulsions.

A fever succeeded to this. I lay for two months on the point of death: my  ravings, as I afterwards heard, were frightful; I called myself the murderer of  William, of Justine, and of Clerval. Sometimes I entreated my attendants to  assist me in the destruction of the fiend by whom I was tormented; and at others  I felt the fingers of the monster already grasping my neck, and screamed aloud with agony and terror. Fortunately, as I spoke my native language, Mr. Kirwin alone understood me; but my gestures and bitter cries were sufficient to affright the other witnesses.

Why did I not die? More miserable than man ever was before, why did I not  sink into forgetfulness and rest? Death snatches away many blooming children,  the only hopes of their doating parents: how many brides and youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health and hope, and the next a prey for worms and the decay of the tomb! Of what materials was I made, that I could thus  resist so many shocks, which, like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed  the torture?

But I was doomed to live; and, in two months, found myself as awaking from a dream, in a stretched on a wretched bed, surrounded by gaolers, turnkeys, bolts, and all the miserable apparatus of a dungeon. It was morning, I remember, when I thus awoke to understanding: I had forgotten the particulars of what had  happened, and only felt as if some great misfortune had suddenly overwhelmed me; but when I looked around, and saw the barred windows, and the squalidness of the room in which I was, all flashed across my memory, and I groaned bitterly.

This sound disturbed an old woman who was sleeping in a chair beside me. She was a hired nurse, the wife of one of the turnkeys, and her countenance  expressed all those bad qualities which often characterise that class. The lines of her face were hard and rude, like that of persons accustomed to see without  sympathising in sights of misery. Her tone expressed her entire indifference; she addressed me in English, and the voice struck me as one that I had heard  during my sufferings:-< /p>

“Are you better now, sir?” said she.

I replied in the same language, with a feeble voice, “I believe I am; but if it be all true, if indeed I did not dream, I am sorry that I am still alive to feel this misery and horror.”

“For that matter,” replied the old woman, “if you mean about the gentleman you murdered, I believe that it were better for you if you were dead, for I  fancy it will go hard with you! However, that’s none of my business; I am sent  to nurse you, and get you well; I do my duty with a safe conscience; it were  well if everybody did the same.”

I turned with loathing from the woman who could utter so unfeeling a speech  to a person just saved, on the very edge of death; but I felt languid, and  unable to reflect on all that had passed. The whole series of my life appeared to me as a dream; I sometimes doubted if indeed it were all true, for it never  presented itself to my mind with the force of reality.

As the images that floated before me became more distinct, I grew feverish; a  darkness pressed around me: no one was near me who soothed me with the gentle voice of love; no dear hand supported me. The physician came and prescribed  medicines, and the old woman prepared them for me; but utter carelessness was visible in the first, and the expression of brutality was strongly marked in the visage of the second. Who could be interested in the fate of a murderer, but the hangman who would gain his fee?

These were my first reflections; but I soon learned that Mr. Kirwin had shown  me extreme kindness. He had caused the best room in the prison to be prepared for me (wretched indeed was the best); and it was he who had provided a  physician and a nurse. It is true, he seldom came to see me; for, although he ardently desired to relieve the sufferings of every human creature, he did not wish to be present at the agonies and miserable ravings of a murderer. He came, therefore, sometimes, to see that I was not neglected but his visits were short, and with long intervals.

One day, while I was gradually recovering, I was seated in a chair, my eyes  half open, and my cheeks livid like those in death. I was overcome by gloom and  misery, and often reflected I had better seek death than desire to remain in a world which to me was replete with wretchedness. At one time I considered whether I should not declare myself guilty, and suffer the penalty of the law,  less innocent than poor Justine had been. Such were my thoughts when the door of my apartment was opened and Mr. Kirwin entered. His countenance expressed  sympathy and compassion; he drew a chair close to mine, and addressed me in French —

“I fear that this place is very shocking to you; can I do anything to make you more comfortable?”

“I thank you; but all that you mention is nothing to me: on the whole earth  there is no comfort which I am capable of receiving.”

“I know that the sympathy of a stranger can be but of little relief to one borne down as you are by so strange a misfortune. But you will, I hope, soon quit this melancholy abode; for, doubtless, evidence can easily be brought to free you from the criminal charge.”

“That is my least concern: I am, by a course of strange events, become the most miserable of mortals. Persecuted and tortured as I am and have been, can  death be any evil to me?”

“Nothing indeed could be more unfortunate and agonising than the strange chances that have lately occurred. You were thrown, by some surprising accident,  on this shore renowned its hospitality, seized immediately, and charged with  murder. The first sight that was presented to your eyes was the body of your  friend, murdered in so unaccountable a manner, and placed, as it were, by some  fiend across your path.”

As Mr. Kirwin said this, notwithstanding the agitation I endured on this retrospect of my sufferings, I also felt considerable surprise at the knowledge he seemed to possess concerning me. suppose some astonishment was exhibited in  my countenance for Mr. Kirwin hastened to say —

“Immediately upon your being taken ill, all the papers that were on your person were brought me, and I examined them that I might discover some trace by  which I could send to your relations an account of your misfortune and illness. I found several letters, and, among others, one which I discovered from its  commencement to be from your father. I instantly wrote to Geneva: nearly two months have elapsed since the departure of my letter. — But you are ill; even now you tremble: you are unfit for agitation of any kind.”

“This suspense is a thousand times worse than the most horrible event: tell  me what new scene of death has been acted, and whose murder I am now to  lament?”

“Your family is perfectly well,” said Mr. Kirwin, with gentleness; “and some one, a friend, is come to visit you.”

I know not by what chain of thought the idea presented itself, but it  instantly darted into my mind that the murderer had come to mock at my misery,  and taunt me with the death of Clerval, as a new incitement for me to comply  with his hellish desires. I put my hand before my eyes and cried out in agony —

“Oh! take him away! I cannot see him; for God’s sake do not let him  enter!”

Mr. Kirwin regarded me with a troubled countenance. He could not help  regarding my exclamation as a presumption of my guilt, and said, in rather a  severe tone —

“I should have thought, young man, that the presence of your father would  have been welcome instead of inspiring such violent repugnance.”

“My father!” cried I, while every feature and every muscle was relaxed from  anguish to pleasure: “is my father indeed come? How kind, how very kind! But  where is he, why does he not hasten to me?”

My change of manner surprised and pleased the magistrate; perhaps he thought that my former exclamation was a momentary return of delirium, and now he  instantly resumed his former benevolence. He rose and quitted the room with my nurse, and in a moment my father entered it.

Nothing, at this moment, could have given me greater pleasure than the arrival of my father. I stretched out my hand to him and cried —

“Are you then safe — and Elizabeth — and Ernest?”

My father calmed me with assurances of their welfare, and endeavoured, by  dwelling on these subjects so interesting to my heart, to raise my desponding  spirits; but he soon felt that a prison cannot be the abode of cheerfulness.  “What a place is this that you inhabit, my son!” said he, looking mournfully at the barred windows and wretched appearance of the room. “You travelled to seek happiness, but a fatality seems to pursue you. And poor Clerval — “

The name of my unfortunate and murdered friend was an agitation too great to be endured in my weak state; I shed tears.

“Alas! yes, my father,” replied I; “some destiny of the most horrible kind hangs over me, and I must live to fulfill it, or surely I should have died on the coffin of Henry.”

We were not allowed to converse for any length of time, for the precarious state of my health rendered every precaution necessary that could ensure  tranquillity. Mr. Kirwin came in and insisted that my strength should not be  exhausted by too much exertion. But the appearance of my father was to me like  that of my good angel, and I gradually recovered my health.

As my sickness quitted me, I was absorbed by a gloomy and black melancholy that nothing could dissipate. The image of Clerval was forever before me, ghastly and murdered. More than once the agitation into which these reflections threw me made my friends dread a dangerous relapse. Alas! why did they preserve so miserable and detested a life? It was surely that I might fulfill my destiny,  which is now drawing to a close. Soon, oh! very soon, will death extinguish these throbbings, and relieve me from the mighty weight of anguish that bears me to the dust; and, in executing the award of justice, I shall also sink to rest.  Then the appearance of death was distant although the wish was ever present to  my thoughts; and I often sat for hours motionless and speechless, wishing for some mighty revolution that might bury me and my destroyer in its ruins.

The season of the assizes approached. I had already been three months in prison; and although I was still weak, and in continual danger of a relapse, I was obliged to travel nearly a hundred miles to the county-town where the court was held. Mr. Kirwin charged himself with every care of collecting witnesses and arranging my defence. I was spared the disgrace of appearing publicly as a  criminal, as the case was not brought before the court that decides on life and  death. The grand jury rejected the bill on its being proved that I was on the Orkney Islands at the hour the body of my friend was found; and a fortnight  after my removal I was liberated from prison.

My father was enraptured on finding me freed from the vexations of a criminal  charge, that I was again allowed to breathe the fresh atmosphere, and permitted to return to my native country. I did not participate in these feelings; for to me the walls of a dungeon or a palace were alike hateful. The cup of life was  poisoned forever; and although the sun shone upon me as upon the happy and gay of heart, I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me. Sometimes they were  the expressive eyes of Henry languishing in death, the dark orbs nearly covered by the lids, and the long black lashes that fringed them; sometimes it was the watery, clouded eyes of the monster as I first saw them in my chamber at Ingolstadt.

My father tried to awaken in me the feelings of affection. He talked of  Geneva, which I should soon visit — of Elizabeth and Ernest; but these words only drew deep groans from me. Sometimes, indeed, I felt a wish for happiness;  and thought, with melancholy delight, of my beloved cousin; or longed, with a  devouring maladie du pays, to see once more the blue lake and rapid Rhone that had been so dear to me in early childhood: but my general state of feeling was a  torpor in which a prison was as welcome a residence as the divinest scene in  nature; and these fits were seldom interrupted but by paroxysms of anguish and despair. At these moments I often endeavoured to put an end to the existence I loathed; and it required unceasing attendance and vigilance to restrain me from committing some dreadful act of violence.

Yet one duty remained to me, the recollection of which finally triumphed over  my selfish despair. It was necessary that I should return without delay to  Geneva, there to watch over the lives of those I so fondly loved; and to lie in  wait for the murderer, that if any chance led me to the place of his concealment, or if he dared again to blast me by his presence, I might, with unfailing aim, put an end to the existence of the monstrous Image which I had  endued with the mockery of a soul still more monstrous. My father still desired to delay our departure, fearful that I could not sustain the fatigues of a journey: for I was a shattered wreck — the shadow of a human being. My strength was gone. I was a mere skeleton; and fever night and day preyed upon my wasted  frame.

Still, as I urged our leaving Ireland with such inquietude and impatience, my  father thought it best to yield. We took our passage on board a vessel bound for Havre-de-Grace, and sailed with a fair wind from the Irish shores. It was midnight. I lay on the deck looking at the stars and listening to the dashing of  the waves. I hailed the darkness that shut Ireland from my sight; and my pulse beat with a feverish joy when I reflected that I should soon see Geneva. The past appeared to me in the light of a frightful dream; yet the vessel in which I was, the wind that blew me from the detested shore of Ireland, and the sea which surrounded me, told me too forcibly that I was deceived by no vision, and that  Clerval, my friend and dearest companion, had fallen a victim to me and the monster of my creation. I repassed, in my memory, my whole life; my quiet  happiness while residing with my family in Geneva, the death of my mother, and  my departure for Ingolstadt. I remembered, shuddering, the mad enthusiasm that  hurried me on to the creation of my hideous enemy, and I called to mind the night in which he first lived. I was unable to pursue the train of thought; a  thousand feelings pressed upon me, and I wept bitterly.

Ever since my recovery from the fever I had been in the custom of taking every night a small quantity of laudanum; for it was by means of this drug only  that I was enabled to gain the rest necessary for the preservation of life.  Oppressed by the recollection of my various misfortunes, I now swallowed double  my usual quantity and soon slept profoundly. But sleep did not afford me respite  from thought and misery; my dreams presented a thousand objects that scared me.  Towards morning I was possessed by a kind of nightmlare; I felt the fiend’s grasp in my neck, and could not free myself from it; groans and cries rung in my ears. My father, who was watching over me, perceiving my restlessness, awoke me;  the dashing waves were around: the cloudy sky above; the fiend was not here: a sense of security, a feeling that a truce mas established between the present  hour and the irresistible, disastrous future, imparted to me a kind of calm  forgetfulness, of which the human mind is by its structure peculiarly susceptible.


Chapter 22

The voyage came to an end. We landed and proceeded to Paris.  I soon found that I had overtaxed my strength, and that I must repose before I could continue my journey. My father’s care and attentions were indefatigable;  but he did not know the origin of my sufferings, and sought erroneous methods to  remedy the incurable ill. He wished me to seek amusement in society. I abhorred  the face of man. Oh, not abhorred! they were my brethren, my fellow beings, and  I felt attracted even to the most repulsive among them as to creatures of an  angelic nature and celestial mechanism. But I felt that I had no right to share  their intercourse. I had unchained an enemy among them, whose it was to shed  their blood and to revel in their groans. How they would, each and all, abhor  me, and hunt me from the world, did they know my unhallowed acts and the crimes  which had their source in me!

My father yielded at length to my desire to avoid society, and strove by various arguments to banish my despair. Sometimes he thought that I felt deeply the degradation of being obliged to answer a charge of murder, and he endeavoured to prove to me the futility of pride.

“Alas! my father,” said I, “how little do you know me. Human beings, their feelings and passions, would indeed be degraded if such a wretch as I felt  pride. Justine, poor unhappy Justine, was as innocent as I, and she suffered the  same charge; she died for it; and I am the cause of this — I murdered her. William, Justine, and Henry — they all died by my hands.”

My father had often, during my imprisonment, heard me make the same  assertion; when I thus accused myself he sometimes seemed to desire an explanation, and at others he appeared to consider it as the offspring of  delirium, and that, during my illness, some idea of this kind had presented  itself to my imagination, the remembrance of which I preserved in my  convalescence. I avoided explanation, and maintained a continual silence concerning the wretch I had created. I had a persuasion that I should be  supposed mad; and this in itself would forever have chained my tongue. But, besides, I could not bring myself to disclose a secret which would fill my hearer with consternation, and make fear and unnatural horror the inmates of his breast. I checked, therefore, my impatient thirst for sympathy, and was silent when I would have given the world to have confided the fatal secret. Yet still words like those I have recorded would burst uncontrollably from me. I could  offer no explanation of them; but their truth in part relieved the burden of my  mysterious woe.

Upon this occasion my father said, with an expression of unbounded wonder, “My dearest Victor, what infatuation is this? My dear son, I entreat you never to make such an assertion again.”

“I am not mad,” I cried energetically; “the sun and the heavens, who have  viewed my operations, can bear witness of my truth. I am the assassin of those most innocent victims; they died by my machinations. A thousand times would I have shed my own blood, drop by drop, to have saved their lives; but I could not, my father, indeed I could not sacrifice the whole human race.”

The conclusion of this speech convinced my father that my ideas were deranged, and he instantly changed the subject of our conversation and  endeavoured to alter the course of thoughts. He wished as much as possible to obliterate the memory of the scenes that had taken place in Ireland, and never  alluded to them, or suffered me to speak of my misfortunes.

As time passed away I became more calm: misery had her dwelling in my heart, but I no longer talked in the same incoherent manner of my own crimes;  sufficient for me was the consciousness of them. By the utmost self-violence, I  curbed the imperious voice of wretchedness, which sometimes desired to declare itself to the whole world; and my manners were calmer and more composed than they had ever been since my journey to the sea of ice.

A few days before we left Paris on our way to Switzerland, I received the  following letter from Elizabeth: —

My dear friend, — It gave me the greatest pleasure to receive a letter from my uncle dated at Paris; you are no longer at a formidable distance, and I may hope to see you in less than a fortnight. My poor cousin, how much you must have  suffered! I expect to see you looking even more ill than when you quitted  Geneva. This winter has been passed most miserably, tortured as I have been by anxious suspense; yet I hope to see peace in your countenance, and to find that your heart is not totally void of comfort and tranquillity.

Yet I fear that the same feelings now exist that made you so miserable a year  ago, even perhaps augmented by time. I would not disturb you at this period when so many misfortunes weigh upon you; but a conversation that I had with my uncle  previous to his departure renders some explanation necessary before we meet.

Explanation! you may possibly say; what can Elizabeth have to explain? If you  really say this, my questions are answered, and all my doubts satisfied. But you  are distant from me, and it is possible that you may dread, and yet be pleased  with this explanation; and, in a probability of this being the case, I dare not  any longer postpone writing what, during your absence, I have often wished to  express to you, but have never had the courage to begin.

You well know, Victor, that our union has been the favourite plan of your  parents ever since our infancy. We were told this when young, and taught to look  forward to it as an event that would certainly take place. We were affectionate play-fellows during childhood, and dear and valued friends to one another as we  grew older. But as brother and sister often entertain a lively affection towards each other without desiring a more intimate union, may not such also be our case? Tell me, dearest Victor. Answer me, I conjure you by our mutual happiness, with simple truth — Do you not love another?

You have travelled; you have spent several years of your life at Ingolstadt; and I confess to you, my friend, that when I saw you last autumn so unhappy,  flying to solitude, from the society of every creature, I could not help  supposing that you might regret our connection, and believe yourself bound in  honour to fulfill the wishes of your parents although they opposed themselves to  your inclinations. But this is false reasoning. I confess to you, my friend,  that I love you, and that in my air dreams of futurity you have been my constant  friend and companion. But it is your happiness I desire as well as my own when I  declare to you that our marriage would render me eternally miserable unless it were the dictate of your own free choice. Even now I weep to think that, borne down as you are by the cruellest misfortunes, you may stifle, by the word  honour, all hope of that love and happiness which would alone restore you to yourself. I who have so disinterested an affection for you, may increase your  miseries tenfold by being an obstacle to your wishes. Ah! Victor, be assured that your cousin and playmate has too sincere a love for you not to be made miserable by this supposition. Be happy, my friend; and if you obey me in this one request, remain satisfied that nothing on earth will have the power to interrupt my tranquillity.

Do not let this letter disturb you; do not answer tomorrow, or the next day, or even until you come, if it will give you pain. My uncle will send me. news of your health; and if I see but one smile on your lips when we meet, occasioned by this or any other exertion of mine, I shall need no other happiness.

Elizabeth Lavenza.

This letter revived in my memory what I had before forgotten, the threat of  the fiend — “I will be with you on your wedding-night!” Such was my sentence,  and on that night would the daemon employ every art to destroy me, and tear me from the glimpse of happiness which promised partly to console my sufferings. On that night he had determined to consummate his crimes by my death. Well, be it  so; a deadly struggle would then assuredly take place, in which if he were victorious I should be at peace, and his power over me be at an end. If he were vanquished I should be a free man. Alas! what freedom? such as the peasant enjoys when his family have been massacred before his eyes, his cottage burnt,  his lands laid waste, and he is turned adrift, homeless, penniless and alone,  but free. Such would be my liberty except that in my Elizabeth I possessed a  treasure; alas! balanced by those horrors of remorse and guilt which would  pursue me until death.

Sweet and beloved Elizabeth! I read and re-read her letter and some softened feelings stole into my heart and dared to whisper paradisaical dreams of love and joy; but the apple was already eaten, and the angel’s arm bared to drive me from all hope. Yet I would die to make her happy. If the monster executed his threat, death was inevitable; yet, again, I considered whether my marriage would  hasten my fate. My destruction might indeed arrive a few months sooner; but if my torturer should suspect that I postponed it influenced by his menaces he  would surely find other and perhaps more dreadful means of revenge. He had vowed to be with me on my wedding-night, yet he did not consider that threat as  binding him to peace in the meantime; for, as if to show me that he was not yet  satiated with blood, he had murdered Clerval immediately after the enunciation  of his threats. I resolved, therefore, that if my immediate union with my cousin would conduce either to hers or my father’s happiness, my adversary’s designs  against my life should not retard it a single hour.

In this state of mind I wrote to Elizabeth. My letter was calm and affectionate. “I fear, my beloved girl,” I said, “little happiness remains for us on earth; yet all that I may one day enjoy is centred in you. Chase away your idle fears; to you alone do I consecrate my life and my endeavours for contentment. I have one secret, Elizabeth, a dreadful one; when revealed to you  it will chill your frame with horror, and then, far from being surprised at my  misery, you will only wonder that I survive what I have endured. I will confide  this tale of misery and terror to you the day after our marriage shall take place; for, my sweet cousin, there must be perfect confidence between us. But until then, I conjure you, do not mention or allude to it. This I most earnestly  entreat, and I know you will comply.”

In about a week after the arrival of Elizabeth’s letter we returned to Geneva. The sweet girl welcomed me with warm affection; yet tears were in her eyes as she beheld my emaciated frame and feverish cheeks. I saw a change in her also. She was thinner and had lost much of that heavenly vivacity that had  before charmed me; but her gentleness and soft looks of compassion made her a  more fit companion for one blasted and miserable as I was.

The tranquillity which I now enjoyed did not endure. Memory brought madness  with it; and when I thought of what had passed a real insanity possessed me;  sometimes I was furious and burnt with rage; sometimes low and despondent. I neither spoke nor looked at any one, but sat motionless, bewildered by the  multitude of miseries that overcame me.

Elizabeth alone had the power to draw me from these fits; her gentle voice would soothe me when transported by passion, and inspire me with human feelings  when sunk in torpor. She wept with me and for me. When reason returned she would  remonstrate and endeavour to inspire me with resignation. Ah! it is well for the  unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace. The agonies of  remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise sometimes found in indulging the excess of grief.

Soon after my arrival, my father spoke of my immediate marriage with Elizabeth. I remained silent.

“Have you, then, some other attachment?”

“None on earth. I love Elizabeth, and look forward to our union with delight.  Let the day therefore be fixed; and on it I will consecrate myself, in life or death, to the happiness of my cousin.”

“My dear Victor, do not speak thus. Heavy misfortunes have befallen us; but  let us only cling closer to what remains, and transfer our love for those whom we have lost to those who yet live. Our circle will be small, but bound close by the ties of affection and mutual misfortune. And when time shall have softened  your despair, new and dear objects of care will be born to replace those. of  whom we have been so cruelly deprived.”

Such were the lessons of my father. But to me the remembrance of the threat  returned: nor can you wonder that, omnipotent as the fiend had yet been in his deeds of blood, I should almost regard him as invincible, and that when he had  pronounced the words, “I shall be with you on your wedding-night,” I should regard the threatened fate as unavoidable. But death was no evil to me if the loss of Elizabeth were balanced with it; and I therefore, with a contented and  even cheerful countenance, agreed with my father that, if my cousin would consent, the ceremony should take place in ten days, and thus put, as I  imagined, the seal to my fate.

Great God! if for one instant I had thought what might be the hellish  intention of my fiendish adversary, I would rather have banished myself for ever  from my native country, and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth, than to have consented to this miserable marriage. But, if possessed of magic powers, the monster had blinded me to his real intentions; and when I thought that I had  prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim.

As the period fixed for our marriage drew nearer, whether from cowardice or a  prophetic feeling, I felt my heart sink within me. But I concealed my feelings by an appearance of hilarity, that brought smiles and joy to the countenance of  my father, but hardly deceived the ever-watchful and nicer eye of Elizabeth. She  looked forward to our union with placid contentment, not unmingled with a little  fear, which past misfortunes had impressed, that what now appeared certain and tangible happiness might soon dissipate into an airy dream, and leave no trace but deep and everlasting regret.

Preparations were made for the event; congratulatory visits were received; and all wore a smiling appearance. I shut up, as well as I could, in my own heart the anxiety that preyed there, and entered with seeming earnestness into the plans of my father, although they might only serve as the decorations of my  tragedy. Through my father’s exertions, a part of the inheritance of Elizabeth had been restored to her by the Austrian government. A small possession on the  shores of Como belonged to her. It was agreed that, immediately after our union, we should proceed to Villa Lavenza, and spend our first days of happiness beside the beautiful lake near which it stood.

In the meantime I took every precaution to defend my person in case the fiend  should openly attack me. I carried pistols and a dagger constantly about me, and was ever on the watch to prevent artifice and by these means gained a greater degree of tranquillity. Indeed, as the period approached, the threat appeared more as a delusion, not to be regarded as worthy to disturb my peace, while the  happiness I hoped for in my marriage wore a greater appearance of certainty as  the day fixed for its solemnisation drew nearer and I heard it continually  spoken of as an occurrence which no accident could possibly prevent.

Elizabeth seemed happy; my tranquil demeanour contributed greatly to calm her  mind. But on the day that was to fulfill my wishes and my destiny she was melancholy, and a presentiment of evil pervaded her; and perhaps also she thought of the dreadful secret which I had promised to reveal to her on the following day. My father was in the meantime overjoyed, and, in the bustle of preparation, only recognised in the melancholy of his niece the diffidence of a  bride.

After the ceremony was performed a large party assembled at my father’s; but it was agreed that Elizabeth and I should commerce our journey by water, sleeping that night at Evian, and continuing our voyage on the following day.  The day was fair, the wind favourable, all smiled on our nuptial embarkation.

Those were the last moments of my life during which I enjoyed the feeling of happiness. We passed rapidly along: the sun was hot, but we were sheltered from  its rays by a kind of canopy, while we enjoyed the beauty of the scene,  sometimes on one side of the lake, where we saw Mont Saleve, the pleasant banks of Montalegre, and at a distance, surmounting all, the beautiful Mont Blanc, and  the assemblage of snowy mountains that in vain endeavour to emulate her; sometimes coasting the opposite banks, we saw the mighty Jura opposing its dark side to the ambition that would quit its native country, and an almost insurmountable barrier to the invader who should wish to enslave it.

I took the hand of Elizabeth: “You are sorrowful, my love. Ah! if you knew what I have suffered, and what I may yet endure, you would endeavour to let me taste the quiet and freedom from despair that this one day at least permits me  to enjoy.”

“Be happy, my dear Victor,” replied Elizabeth; “there is, I hope, nothing to distress you; and be assured that if a lively joy is not painted in my face, my  heart is contented. Something whispers to me not to depend too much on the prospect that is opened before us; but I will not listen to such a sinister  voice. Observe how fast we move along, and how the clouds, which sometimes  obscure and sometimes rise above the dome of Mont Blanc, render this scene of beauty still more interesting. Look also at the innumerable fish that are  swimming in the clear waters, where we can distinguish every pebble that lies at the bottom. What a divine day! how happy and serene all nature appears!”

Thus Elizabeth endeavoured to divert her thoughts and mine from all  reflection upon melancholy subjects. But her temper was fluctuating; joy for a few instants shone in her eyes, but it continually gave place to distraction and reverie.

The sun sunk lower in the heavens; we passed the river Drance, and observed  its path through the chasms of the higher, and the glens of the lower hills. The  Alps here come closer to the lake, and we approached the amphitheatre of mountains which forms its eastern boundary. The spire of Evian shone under the woods that surrounded it, and the range of mountain above mountain by which it  was overhung.

The wind, which had hitherto carried us along with amazing rapidity, sunk at sunset to a light breeze; the soft air just ruffled the water, and caused a  pleasant motion among the trees as we approached the shore, from which it wafted  the most delightful scent of flowers and hay. The sun sunk beneath the horizon as we landed; and as I touched the shore, I felt those cares and fears revive which soon were to clasp me and cling to me for ever.


Chapter 23

It was eight o’clock when we landed; we walked for a short  time on the shore enjoying the transitory light, and then retired to the inn and  contemplated the lovely scene of waters, woods, and mountains, obscured in darkness, yet still displaying their black outlines.

The wind, which had fallen in the south, now rose with great violence in the west. The moon had reached her summit in the heavens and was beginning to descend — the clouds swept across it swifter than the flight of the vulture and dimmed her rays, while the lake reflected the scene of the busy heavens, rendered still busier by the restless waves that were beginning to rise.  Suddenly a heavy storm of rain descended.

I had been calm during the day; but so soon as night obscured the shapes of  objects, a thousand fears arose in my mind. I was anxious and watchful, while my  right band grasped a pistol which was hidden in my bosom; every sound terrified me; but I resolved that I would sell my life dearly, and not shrink from the  conflict until my own life, or that of my adversary, was extinguished.

Elizabeth observed my agitation for some time in timid and fearful silence;  but there was something in my glance which communicated terror to her, and trembling she asked, “What is it that agitates you, my dear Victor? What is it you fear?”

“Oh! peace, my love,” replied I; “this night and all will be safe: but this  night is dreadful, very dreadful.”

I passed an hour in this state of mind, when suddenly I reflected how fearful  the combat which I momentarily expected would be to my wife, and I earnestly  entreated her to retire, resolving not to join her until I had obtained some  knowledge as to the situation of my enemy.

She left me, and I continued some time walking up and down the passages of the house, and inspecting every corner that might afford a retreat to my  adversary. But I discovered no trace of him, and was beginning to conjecture  that some fortunate chance had intervened to prevent the execution of his menaces, when suddenly I heard a shrill and dreadful scream. It came from the room into which Elizabeth had retired. As I heard it, the whole truth rushed into my mind, my arms dropped, the motion of every muscle and fibre was  suspended; I could feel the blood trickling in my veins and tingling in the  extremities of my limbs. This state lasted but for an instant; the scream was repeated, and I rushed into the room.

Great God! why did I not then expire! Why am I here to relate the destruction  of the best hope and the purest creature of earth? She was there, lifeless and  inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair. Everywhere I turn I see the same figure — her bloodless arms and relaxed form flung by the murderer on its  bridal bier. Could I behold this and live? Alas! life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated. For a moment only did I lose recollection; I fell senseless on the ground.

When I recovered, I found myself surrounded by the people of the inn; their  countenances expressed a breathless terror: but the horror of others appeared only as a mockery, a shadow of the feelings that oppressed me. I escaped from  them to the room where lay the body of Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so dear, so worthy. She had been moved from the posture in which I had first beheld her; and now, as she lay, her head upon her arm, and a handkerchief thrown across her face and neck, I might have supposed her asleep. I rushed  towards her, and embraced her with ardour; but the deadly languor and coldness of the limbs told me that what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished. The murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips.

While I still hung over her in the agony of despair, I happened to look up.  The windows of the room had before been darkened, and I felt a kind of panic on seeing the pale yellow light of the moon illuminate the chamber. The shutters  had been thrown back; and, with a sensation of horror not to be described, I saw  at the open window a figure the most hideous and abhorred. A grin was on the  face of the monster; he seemed to jeer as with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife. I rushed towards the window and, drawing a pistol from my bosom, fired; but he eluded me, leaped from his station, and, running  with the swiftness of lightning, plunged into the lake.

The report of the pistol brought a crowd into the room. I pointed to the spot  where he had disappeared, and we followed the track with boats; nets were cast, but in vain. After passing several hours, we returned hopeless, most of my  companions believing it to have been a form conjured up by my fancy. After having landed, they proceeded to search the country, parties going in different directions among the woods and vines.

I attempted to accompany them, and proceeded a short distance from the house;  but my head whirled round, my steps were like those of a drunken man, I fell at  last in a state of utter exhaustion; a film covered my eyes, and my skin was  parched with the heat of fever. In this state I was carried back and placed on a bed, hardly conscious of what had happened; my eyes wandered round the room as  if to seek something that I had lost.

After an interval I arose and, as if by instinct, crawled into the room where  the corpse of my beloved lay. There were women weeping around — I hung over it,  and joined my sad tears to theirs — all this time no distinct idea presented itself to my mind; but my thoughts rambled to various subjects, reflecting confusedly on my misfortunes and their cause. I was bewildered in a cloud of wonder and horror. The death of William, the execution of Justine, the murder of Clerval, and lastly of my wife; even at that moment I knew not that my only  remaining friends were safe from the malignity of the fiend; my father even now  might be writhing under his grasp, and Ernest might be dead at his feet. This idea made me shudder and recalled me to action. I started up and resolved to return to Geneva with all possible speed.

There were no horses to be procured, and I must return by the lake; but the  wind was unfavourable and the rain fell in torrents. However, it was hardly morning, and I might reasonably hope to arrive by night. I hired men to row, and  took an oar myself; for I had always experienced relief from mental torment in  bodily exercise. But the overflowing misery I now felt, and the excess of  agitation that I endured, rendered me incapable of any exertion. I threw down the oar, and leaning my head upon my hands gave way to every gloomy idea that  arose. If I looked up, I saw the scenes which were familiar to me in my happier time, and which I had contemplated but the day before in the company of her who  was now but a shadow and a recollection. Tears streamed from my eyes. The rain  had ceased for a moment, and I saw the fish play in the waters as they had done a few hours before; they had then been observed by Elizabeth. Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. The sun might shine or the clouds might lower: but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day  before. A fiend had snatched from me to me as it every hope of future happiness: no creature had ever been so miserable as I was; so frightful an event is single in the history of man.

But why should I dwell upon the incidents that followed this last  overwhelming event? Mine has been a tale of horrors; I have reached their acme, and what I must now relate can but be tedious to you. Know that, one by one, my  friends were snatched away; I was left desolate. My own strength is exhausted; and I must tell, in a few words, what remains of my hideous narration.

I arrived at Geneva. My father and Ernest yet lived; but the former sunk under the tidings that I bore. I see him now, excellent and venerable old man!  his eyes wandered in vacancy, for they had lost their charm and their delight —  his Elizabeth, his more than daughter, whom he doated on with all that affection which a man feels, who in the decline of life, having few affections, clings more earnestly to those that remain. Cursed, cursed be the fiend that brought  misery on his grey hairs, and doomed him to waste in wretchedness! He could not live under the horrors that were accumulated around him; the springs of existence suddenly gave way: he was unable to rise from his bed, and in a few  days he died in my arms.

What then became of me? I know not; I lost sensation, and chains and darkness  were the only objects that pressed upon me. Sometimes, indeed, I dreamt that I wandered in flowery meadows and pleasant vales with the friends of my youth; but I awoke, and. found myself in a dungeon. Melancholy followed, but by degrees I gained a clear conception of my miseries and situation, and was then released from my prison. For they had called me mad; and during many months, as I  understood, a solitary cell had been my habitation.

Liberty, however, had been an useless gift to me had I not, as I awakened to reason, at the same time awakened to revenge. As the memory of past misfortunes pressed upon me, I began to reflect on their cause — the monster whom I had  created, the miserable daemon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction. I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and  desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head.

Nor did my hate long confine itself to useless wishes; I began to reflect on the best means of securing him; and for this purpose, about a month after my release, I repaired to a criminal judge in the town, and told him that I had an  accusation to make; and that I knew the destroyer of my family; and that I required him to exert his whole authority for the apprehension of the  murderer.

The magistrate listened to me with attention and kindness. “Be assured, sir,”  said he “no pains or exertions on my part shall be spared to discover the  villain.”

“I thank you,” replied I; “listen, therefore, to the deposition that I have  to make. It is indeed a tale so strange that I should fear you would not credit  it were there not something in truth which, however wonderful, forces conviction. The story is too connected to be mistaken for a dream, and I have no motive for falsehood.” My manner as I thus addressed him, was impressive but calm; I had formed in my heart a resolution to pursue my destroyer to death; and  this purpose quieted my agony, and for an interval reconciled me to life. I now related my history, briefly, but with firmness and precision, marking the dates with accuracy, and never deviating into or exclamation.

The magistrate appeared at first perfectly incredulous, but as I continued he  became more attentive and interested; I saw him sometimes shudder with horror, at others a lively surprise, unmingled with disbelief, was painted on his countenance.

When I had concluded my narration, I said, “This is the being whom I accuse, and for whose seizure and punishment I call upon you to exert your whole power.  It is your duty as a magistrate, and I believe and hope that your feelings as a man will not revolt from the execution of those functions on this occasion.”

This address caused a considerable change in the physiognomy of my own auditor. He had heard my story with that half kind of belief that is given to a  tale of spirits and supernatural events; but when he was called upon to act officially in consequence, the whole tide of his incredulity returned. He,  however, answered mildly, “I would willingly afford you every aid in your pursuit; but the creature of whom you speak appears to have powers which would put all my exertions to defiance. Who can follow an animal which can traverse  the sea of ice, and inhabit caves and dens where no man would venture to intrude? Besides, some months have elapsed since the commission of his crimes,  and no one can conjecture to what place he has wandered, or what region he may  now inhabit.”

“I do not doubt that he hovers near the spot which I inhabit; and if he has  indeed taken refuge in the Alps, he may be hunted like the chamois, and  destroyed as a beast of prey. But I perceive your thoughts: you do not credit my narrative, and do not intend to pursue my enemy with the punishment which is his desert.”

As I spoke, rage sparkled in my eyes; the magistrate was intimidated: — “You  are mistaken,” said he, “I will exert myself, if it is in my power to seize the monster, be assured that he shall suffer punishment proportionate to his crimes. But I fear, from what you have yourself described to be his properties, that this will prove impracticable; and thus, while every proper measure is pursued,  you should make up your mind to disappointment.”

“That cannot be; but all that I can say will be of little avail. My revenge  is of no moment to you; yet, while I allow it to be a vice, I confess that it is the devouring and only passion of my soul. My rage is unspeakable when I reflect  that the murderer, whom I have turned loose upon society, still exists. You refuse my just demand: I have but one resource; and I devote myself, either in  my life or death, to his destruction.”

I trembled with excess of agitation as I said this; there was a frenzy in my manner and something, I doubt not, of that haughty fierceness which the martyrs of old are said to have possessed. But to a Genevan magistrate, whose mind was occupied by far other ideas than those of devotion and heroism, this elevation  of mind had much the appearance of madness. He endeavoured to soothe me as a nurse does a child, and reverted to my tale as the effects of delirium.

“Man,” I cried, “how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom! Cease; you  know not what it is you say.”

I broke from the house angry and disturbed, and retired to meditate on some  other mode of action.