 she was innocent; you are of the same opinion, and that
confirms me. Alas! Victor, when falsehood can look so like the truth, who can
assure themselves of certain happiness? I feel as if I were walking on the edge
of a precipice, towards which thousands are crowding, and endeavouring to plunge
me into the abyss. William and Justine were assassinated, and the murderer
escapes; he walks about the world free, and perhaps respected. But even if I
were condemned to suffer on the scaffold for the same crimes, I would not change
places with such a wretch.«
    I listened to this discourse with the extremest agony. I, not in deed, but
in effect, was the true murderer. Elizabeth read my anguish in my countenance,
and kindly taking my hand, said, »My dearest friend, you must calm yourself.
These events have affected me, God knows how deeply; but I am not so wretched as
you are. There is an expression of despair, and sometimes of revenge, in your
countenance, that makes me tremble. Dear Victor, banish these dark passions.
Remember the friends around you, who centre all their hopes in you. Have we lost
the power of rendering you happy? Ah! while we love - while we are true to each
other, here in this land of peace and beauty, your native country, we may reap
every tranquil blessing, - what can disturb our peace?«
    And could not such words from her whom I fondly prized before every other
gift of fortune, suffice to chase away the fiend that lurked in my heart? Even
as she spoke I drew near to her, as if in terror; lest at that very moment the
destroyer had been near to rob me of her.
    Thus not the tenderness of friendship, nor the beauty of earth, nor of
heaven, could redeem my soul from woe: the very accents of love were
ineffectual. I was encompassed by a cloud which no beneficial influence could
penetrate. The wounded deer dragging its fainting limbs to some untrodden brake,
there to gaze upon the arrow which had pierced it, and to die - was but a type
of me.
    Sometimes I could cope with the sullen despair that overwhelmed me: but
sometimes the whirlwind passions of my soul drove me to seek, by bodily exercise
and by change of place, some relief from my intolerable sensations. It was
during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps
towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of
such scenes, to
