Pagina 278 de 483

"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!'