Pagina 395 van 483

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 anyone, but sat motionless, bewildered by the multitude

of miseries that overcame me.