Pagina 344 di 483

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 sank 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

rang in my ears like a death-knell; they appeared like a dream,

yet distinct and oppressive as a reality.