Pagina 150 di 483

I was often tempted, when all was at peace around me, and I the

only unquiet thing that wandered restless in a scene so beautiful

and heavenly-if I except some bat, or the frogs, whose harsh and

interrupted croaking was heard only when I approached the

shore-often, I say, I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake,

that the waters might close over me and my calamities for ever.

But I was restrained, when I thought of the heroic and suffering

Elizabeth, whom I tenderly loved, and whose existence was bound

up in mine. I thought also of my father and surviving brother;

should I by my base desertion leave them exposed and unprotected

to the malice of the fiend whom I had let loose among them?