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50 - Melmoth The Wanderer by Charles Robert Maturin · Melmoth The Wanderer

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  Speaker 1: Or by Charles Robert maturin chapter thirty four, Husband, Husband,
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  Speaker 1: I of the ring, thou gavest to day to me,
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  Speaker 1: and thou to me art ever wed as I am
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  Speaker 1: wed to thee Lyttle's poems. The remainder of that dreadful
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  Speaker 1: night when Isidora disappeared had been passed almost in despair,
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  Speaker 1: by Donna Clara, who, amid all her rigor and chilling mediocrity,
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  Speaker 1: had still the feelings of a mother, and by fra Jose, who,
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  Speaker 1: with all his selfish luxury and love of domination, had
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  Speaker 1: a heart where distress never knocked for admittance that she
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  Speaker 1: did not find pity ready to open the door. The
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  Speaker 1: distress of Donna Clara was aggravated by her fear of
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  Speaker 1: her husband, of whom she stood in great awe, and
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  Speaker 1: who she dreaded, might reproach her with unpardonable negligence of
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  Speaker 1: her maternal authority. In this night of distress, she was
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  Speaker 1: often tempted to call on her son for advice and assistance,
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  Speaker 1: but the recollection of his violent passions deterred her, and
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  Speaker 1: she sat in passive despair till day. Then, with an
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  Speaker 1: unaccountable impulse, she rose from her seat and hurried to
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  Speaker 1: her daughter's apartment, as if she imagined that the events
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  Speaker 1: of the preceding night were only a fearful and false
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  Speaker 1: illusion that would be dispersed by the approach of day.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed, indeed, as if they were, for on the
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  Speaker 1: bed lay Isidora in a profound sleep with the same
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  Speaker 1: pure and placid smile as when she was lulled into
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  Speaker 1: slumber by the melodies of nature, and the sound was
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  Speaker 1: prolonged in her dream by the whispered songs of the
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  Speaker 1: spirits of the Indian Ocean. Donna Clair uttered a shriek
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  Speaker 1: of surprise that had the singular effect of rousing fra
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  Speaker 1: Jose from a deep sleep into which he had fallen
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  Speaker 1: at the approach of day. Starting at the sound, the
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  Speaker 1: good natured, pampered priest tottered into the room and saw
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  Speaker 1: with incredulity that slowly yielded to frequent application to his
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  Speaker 1: obstinate and adhesive i lives, the form of Isidora extended
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  Speaker 1: in profound slumber. Oh, what an exquisite enjoyment, said the
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  Speaker 1: yawning priest, as he looked on the sleeping beauty without
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  Speaker 1: another emotion than that of the delight of an uninterrupted repose. Pray,
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  Speaker 1: don't disturb her, he said, yawning himself out of the room.
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  Speaker 1: After such a night as we all have had, sleep
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  Speaker 1: must be a very refreshing and laudable exercise, and so
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  Speaker 1: I commend you to the protection of the holy saints.
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  Speaker 1: Oh Reverend Father, Oh Holy Father, cried Donna Clair, clinging
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  Speaker 1: to him. Desert me. Not in this extremity, this has
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  Speaker 1: been the work of magic, of infernal spirits. See how
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  Speaker 1: profoundly she sleeps. Though we are speaking and it is
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  Speaker 1: now daylight. Daughter, you are much mistaken, answered the drowsy priest.
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  Speaker 1: People can sleep soundly even in the daytime, and for
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  Speaker 1: proof send me as I am now retiring to rest
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  Speaker 1: a battle of font carrals or vow d'epagnas. Not that
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  Speaker 1: I value the richest vintage of Spain, from the Chacoli
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  Speaker 1: Obiscay to the Mantaro of Catalonia. But I would never
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  Speaker 1: have it said that I slept in the daytime. But
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  Speaker 1: for sufficient reason, Holy Father, answered Donna Clair. Do you
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  Speaker 1: not think my daughter's disappearance and intense slumber are the
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  Speaker 1: results of preternatural causes? Daughter, answered the priest, contracting his brows.
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  Speaker 1: Let me have some wine to slake the intolerable thirst
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  Speaker 1: caused by my anxiety for the welfare of your family,
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  Speaker 1: and let me meditate some hours afterwards on the measure's
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  Speaker 1: best to be adopted, And then when I wake, I
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  Speaker 1: will give you my opinion. Holy Father, you shall judge
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  Speaker 1: for me in everything. It were not a miss, daughter,
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  Speaker 1: said the priest, retiring, if a few slices of ham
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  Speaker 1: or some poignant sausages accompanied the wine, it might, as
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  Speaker 1: it were, abate the deleterious effects of that abominable liquor,
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  Speaker 1: which I never drink. But on emergencies like these, Holy Father,
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  Speaker 1: they shall be ordered, said the anxious mother. But do
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  Speaker 1: you not think my daughter's sleep is supernatural? Follow me
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  Speaker 1: to mine apartment, daughter, answered the priest, exchanging his cow
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  Speaker 1: for a nightcap, which one of the numerous household obsequiously
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  Speaker 1: presented him. And you will soon see that sleep is
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  Speaker 1: a natural effect of a natural cause. Your daughter has
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  Speaker 1: doubtless passed a very fatiguing night, and so have you,
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  Speaker 1: and so have I, though perhaps from very different causes.
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  Speaker 1: But all those causes dispose us to a profound repose.
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  Speaker 1: I have no doubt of mine fetch up the wine
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  Speaker 1: and sausages. I am very weary, Oh, I am weak
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  Speaker 1: and worn with fasts and watching and the labors of exhortation.
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  Speaker 1: My tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth, and
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  Speaker 1: my jaws cling together. Perhaps a draft or two might
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  Speaker 1: dissolve their parching adhesion. But I do so hate wine.
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  Speaker 1: Why the devil don't you fetch up the bottle? The attendant, domestic,
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  Speaker 1: terrified by the tone of wrath in which the last
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  Speaker 1: words were uttered, hurried on with submissive expedition, and fra
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  Speaker 1: Jose sat down at length in his apartment to ruminate
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  Speaker 1: on the calamities and perplexities of the family, till he
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  Speaker 1: was actually overcome by the subject, and exclaimed, in a
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  Speaker 1: tone of despair, both bottles empty. Then it is useless
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  Speaker 1: to meditate further on this subject. He was roused at
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  Speaker 1: an earlier hour than he wished by a message from
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  Speaker 1: Donna Claire, who, in the distress of a weak mind,
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  Speaker 1: accustomed always to factitious and external support, now felt as
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  Speaker 1: if every step she took without it must lead to
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  Speaker 1: actual and instant perdition. Her fear of her husband, next
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  Speaker 1: to her superstitious fears, held the strongest power over her mind,
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  Speaker 1: and that morning she called Fra Jose to an early
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  Speaker 1: consultation of terror and in quietude. Her great object was
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  Speaker 1: to conceal, if possible, the absence of her daughter on
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  Speaker 1: that eventful night, and finding that none of the domestics
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  Speaker 1: appeared conscious of it, and that amid the numerous household,
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  Speaker 1: only one aged servant was absent, of whose absence no
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  Speaker 1: one took notice. Amid the superfluous multitude of a Spanish establishment,
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  Speaker 1: her courage began to revive. It was raised still higher
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  Speaker 1: by a letter from Aliaga announcing the ness of his
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  Speaker 1: visiting a distant part of Spain, and of the marriage
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  Speaker 1: of his daughter with Montilla being deferred for some months.
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  Speaker 1: This sounded like reprieve in the ears of Donna Clara.
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  Speaker 1: She consulted with the priest, who answered in words of
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  Speaker 1: comfort that if Isidora's short absence were known, it was
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  Speaker 1: but a slight evil, and if it were not known,
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  Speaker 1: it was none at all. And he recommended to her
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  Speaker 1: to ensure the secrecy of the servants by means that
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  Speaker 1: he swore by his habit were infallible, as he had
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  Speaker 1: known them operate effectively among the servants of a far
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  Speaker 1: more powerful and extensive establishment. Reverend Father, said Dona Clara.
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  Speaker 1: I know of no establishment among the grandees of Spain
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  Speaker 1: more splendid than ours. But I do, daughter, said the priest,
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  Speaker 1: and the head of that establishment is the Pope. We
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  Speaker 1: go now and awake your daughter, who deserves to sleep
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  Speaker 1: till doomsday, as she seems totally to have forgotten the
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  Speaker 1: hour of breakfast. It is not for myself I speak, daughter,
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  Speaker 1: but I cannot bear to see the regularity of a
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  Speaker 1: magnificent household thus interrupted. For myself, A basin of chocolate
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  Speaker 1: and a cluster of grapes will be sufficient, And to
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  Speaker 1: allay the crudity of the grapes a glass of malaga.
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  Speaker 1: Your glasses, by the bye, are the shallowest I ever
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  Speaker 1: drank out of. Could you not find some means to
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  Speaker 1: get from il Defanso glasses of the right make with
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  Speaker 1: short shanks and ample bodies. Yours resemble those of Quichhut,
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  Speaker 1: all limbs and no trunk, A like one that resembles
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  Speaker 1: his squire. A spacious body in a shank that may
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  Speaker 1: be measured by my little finger. I will send to
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  Speaker 1: s il Defanso this day, answered Donna Clara, go and
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  Speaker 1: awake your daughter first, said the priest. As he spoke.
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  Speaker 1: Isidore entered the room. The mother and the priest both
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  Speaker 1: stood amazed. Her countenance was as serene, her step as equal,
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  Speaker 1: and her mien as composed, as if she were totally
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  Speaker 1: unconscious of the terror and distress her disappearance the preceding
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  Speaker 1: night had caused to the first short silence of amazement
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  Speaker 1: succeeded a storm of interrogations from Donna Clara and Fra
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  Speaker 1: Jose in concert. Why, where, wherefore, and what and with
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  Speaker 1: whom and how? That was all they could articulate. They
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  Speaker 1: might as well have spared themselves the trouble, for neither
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  Speaker 1: that day nor many following, could the remonstrances, entreaties, or
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  Speaker 1: menaces of her mother, aided by the spiritual authority and
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  Speaker 1: more powerful anxiety of the priest, extort from her a
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  Speaker 1: word of explanation on the cause of her absence that
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  Speaker 1: awful night, When closely in stern pressed, Isidore's mind seemed
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  Speaker 1: to assume something of the wild but potent's spirit of independence,
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  Speaker 1: which her early habits and feelings might have communicated to her.
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  Speaker 1: She had been her own teacher and mistress for seventeen years,
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  Speaker 1: and though naturally gentle and tractable, when imperious mediocrity attempted
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  Speaker 1: to tyrannize over her, she felt a sense of disdain,
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  Speaker 1: which she expressed only by profound silence. Fra Jose, incensed
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  Speaker 1: at her obstinacy and trembling for the loss of his
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  Speaker 1: power over the family, threatened to exclude her from confession
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  Speaker 1: unless she disclosed to him the secret of that night.
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  Speaker 1: Then I will confess to God, said Isidore her mother's importunity,
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  Speaker 1: she found it more difficult to resist, for her feminine
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  Speaker 1: heart loved all that was feminine, even in its most
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  Speaker 1: unattractive shape, and the persecution and from that quarter was
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  Speaker 1: alike monotonous and unremitting. There was a weak but harassing
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  Speaker 1: tenacity about Donna Clara, that is the general adjunct to
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  Speaker 1: the female character when it combines intellectual mediocrity with rigid principle.
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  Speaker 1: When she laid siege to a secret, the garrison might
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  Speaker 1: as well capitulate at once. What she wanted in vigor
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  Speaker 1: and ability, she supplied by a minute and gnawing asciduity.
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  Speaker 1: She never ventured to carry the fort by storm, but
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  Speaker 1: her obstinacy blockaded it till it was forced to surrender.
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  Speaker 1: But here even her importunity failed. Is a door remained
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  Speaker 1: respectfully but resolutely silent, finding matters. Thus, desperate Dona Clara,
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  Speaker 1: who had a fine talent for keeping as well as
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  Speaker 1: discovering a secret, agreed with fra Jose not to utter
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  Speaker 1: a syllable of the business to her father and brother.
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  Speaker 1: We will show, said Donna Clair, with the sagacious and
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  Speaker 1: self approving nod, that we can keep a secret as
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  Speaker 1: well as she right daughter, said fra Jose. Imitate her
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  Speaker 1: in the only point in which you can flatter yourself
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  Speaker 1: with the hope of resemblance. The secret was, however, soon disclosed.
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  Speaker 1: Some months had elapsed, and the visits of her husband
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  Speaker 1: began to give an habitual calm and confidence to the
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  Speaker 1: mind of Isidora. He imperceptibly was exchanging his ferocious misanthropy
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  Speaker 1: for a kind of pensive gloom. It was like the dark, cold,
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  Speaker 1: but unterrific and comparatively soothing night that succeeds to a
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  Speaker 1: day of storm and earthquake. The sufferers remember the terrors
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  Speaker 1: of the day, and the still darkness of the night
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  Speaker 1: feels to them like a shelter. Isidor gazed on her,
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  Speaker 1: espoused with delight when she saw no longer his withering
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  Speaker 1: frown or more withering smile, and she felt the hope
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  Speaker 1: that the calm purity of female hearts always suggests that
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  Speaker 1: its influence will one day float over the formless and
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  Speaker 1: the void, like the spirit that moved upon the face
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  Speaker 1: of the waters, and that the unbelieving husband may yet
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  Speaker 1: be saved by the believing wife. These thoughts were her comfort,
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  Speaker 1: and it was well she had thoughts to comfort her,
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  Speaker 1: for facts are miserable allies when imagination fights its battle
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  Speaker 1: with despair. On one of those nights that she expected Malmouth,
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  Speaker 1: he found her employed in her usual Hymn to the Virgin,
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  Speaker 1: which she accompanied on her lute. Is it not rather
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  Speaker 1: late to senor vesper Hymn to the Virgin? After midnight?
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  Speaker 1: Said Malmouth, with a ghastly smile. Her ears open at
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  Speaker 1: all times, I have been told, answered Isidora. If it is,
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  Speaker 1: then love, said Melmouth, vaulting as usual through the casement,
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  Speaker 1: add a stanza to your hymn in favor of me,
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  Speaker 1: alas said Isidor, dropping her lute. You do not believe
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  Speaker 1: love in what the Holy Church requires. Yes, I do
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  Speaker 1: believe when I listen to you and only then sing
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  Speaker 1: again your hymn to the Virgin Isidoor complied and watched
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  Speaker 1: the effect on the listener. He seemed affected. He motioned
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  Speaker 1: to her to repeat it my love, said Isidor. Is
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  Speaker 1: not this more like the repetition of a theatrical song
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  Speaker 1: called for by an audience than a hymn which he
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  Speaker 1: who listens to loves his wife better for because she
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  Speaker 1: loves her God. It is a shrewd question, said Melmoth.
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  Speaker 1: But why am I, in your imagination excluded from the
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  Speaker 1: love of God? Do you ever visit the church? Answered
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  Speaker 1: the anxious Isidora a profound silence. Do you ever receive
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  Speaker 1: the holy sacrament? Melmoth did not utter a word? Have
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  Speaker 1: you ever at my earnest solicitation enabled me to announce
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  Speaker 1: to my anxious family the tie that united us? No answer?
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  Speaker 1: And now that perhaps I dare not utter what I feel? Oh,
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  Speaker 1: how shall I appear before eyes that watch me even
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  Speaker 1: now so closely? What shall I say? A wife without
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  Speaker 1: a husband, a mother without a father for her child,
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  Speaker 1: or one whom a fearful oath has bound her never
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  Speaker 1: to declare, Oh, Malmoth, pity me, deliver me from this
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  Speaker 1: life of constraint, falsehood and dissimulation. Claim me as your
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  Speaker 1: wedded wife. In the face of my family, and in
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  Speaker 1: the face of ruin, your wedded wife will follow, will
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  Speaker 1: cling too, will perish with you. Her arms clung round him,
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  Speaker 1: her cold but heart wrung tears fell fast on his cheek,
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  Speaker 1: And the imploring arms of woman supplicating for deliverance in
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  Speaker 1: her hour of shame and terror, seldom are twined round us.
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  Speaker 1: In vain Melmoth felt the appeal. It was, but for
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  Speaker 1: a moment he caught the white arms extended towards him.
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  Speaker 1: He fixed an eager and fearful look of inquiry on
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  Speaker 1: his victim consort, as he asked, and is it so?
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  Speaker 1: The pale and shuddering wife shrunk from his arms. At
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  Speaker 1: the question. Her silence answered him. The agonies of nature
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  Speaker 1: throbbed audibly in his heart. He said to himself, it
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  Speaker 1: is mine, the fruit of affection, the first born of
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  Speaker 1: the heart and of nature, Mine mine. And whatever becomes
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  Speaker 1: of me, there shall yet be a human being on
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  Speaker 1: earth who traces me in its external form, and who
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  Speaker 1: will be taught to pray for its father, even when
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  Speaker 1: its prayer falls parched and hissing on the fires that
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  Speaker 1: burn forever, like a wandering drop of dew on the
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  Speaker 1: burning sands of the desert. From the period of this communication,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Melmoth's tenderness for his wife visibly increased. Heaven only knows
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the source of that wild fondness with which he contemplated her,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and in which was still mingled something of ferocity. His
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: warm look seemed like the glow of a sultry summer day,
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  Speaker 1: whose heat announces a storm and compels us, by its
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  Speaker 1: burning oppression, to look to the storm, almost for relief.
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  Speaker 1: It is not impossible that he looked to some future
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  Speaker 1: object of his fearful experiment, and a being so perfectly
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  Speaker 1: in his power as his own child, might have appeared
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  Speaker 1: to him fatally fitted for his purpose. The quantum of
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: misery too necessary to qualify the probationer. It was always
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  Speaker 1: in his own power to inflict whatever was his motive.
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  Speaker 1: He assumed as much tenderness as it was possible for
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  Speaker 1: him to assume, and spoke of the approaching event with
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  Speaker 1: the anxious interest of a human father soothed by his
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: altered manner is a door bore with silent sufferance. The
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: burden of her situation, with all its painful accompaniments of
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: indisposition and dejection, aggravated by hourly fear and mysterious secrecy.
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  Speaker 1: She hoped he would at length reward her by an
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  Speaker 1: open and honorable declaration, But this hope was expressed only
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  Speaker 1: in her patient smiles. The hour approached fast, and fearful
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: and indefinite apprehensions began to overshadow her mind relative to
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the fate of the infant about to be borne under
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: circumstances so mysterious. At his next nightly visit, Malmoth found
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: her in tears. Alas said she in answer to his
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: abrupt inquiry and brief attempt at consolation. How many causes
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: have I for tears? And how few have I shed?
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  Speaker 1: If you would have them wiped away? Be assured it
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  Speaker 1: is only your hand can do it. I feel. She added,
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  Speaker 1: that this event will be fatal to me. I know
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  Speaker 1: I shall not live to see my child. I demand
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  Speaker 1: from you the only promise that can support me even
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: under this conviction. Melmouth interrupted her by the assurance that
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: these apprehensions were the inseparable concomitants of her situation, and
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  Speaker 1: that many mothers surrounded by a numerous offspring smiled as
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: they recollected their fears that the birth of each would
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: be fatal to them. Isidore shook her head. The presages,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: said she that visit me are such as never visited
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: mortality in vain. I have always believed that as we
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: approach the invisible world, its voice becomes more audible to us,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: and grief and pain are very eloquent interpret natures between
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: us and eternity, quite distinct from all corporeal suffering, even
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: from all mental terror. Is that deep and unutterable impression,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: which is alike incommunicable and ineffaceable. It is as if
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Heaven spoke to us alone and told us to keep
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  Speaker 1: its secret, or divulged on the condition of never being believed. Oh, Melmoth,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: do not give that fearful smile when I speak of Heaven.
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  Speaker 1: Soon I may be your only intercessor there, my dear saint,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: said Melmoth, laughing and kneeling to her in mockery. Let
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  Speaker 1: me make early interests for your mediation. How many ducats
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  Speaker 1: will it cost me to get you canonized? You will
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: furnish me. I hope with an authentic account of legitimate miracles.
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  Speaker 1: One is ashamed of the nonsense that is sent monthly
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: to the Vatican. Let your conversion be the first miracle
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  Speaker 1: on the list, said Isidora, with an energy that made
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Melmouth tremble. It was dark, but she felt that he trembled.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: She pursued her imagined triumph, Melmoth, She exclaimed, I have
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  Speaker 1: a right to demand one promise from you. For you
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: I have sacrificed everything. Never was woman more devoted, Never
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: did woman give proofs of devotion like mine. I might
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  Speaker 1: have been the noble, honored wife of one who would
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: have laid his wealth and titles at my feet, And
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: this my hour of danger and suffering, the first families
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: in Spain would have been waiting round my door, alone, unaided, unsustained, unconsoled.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I must undergo the terrible struggle of nature. Terrible to
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: those whose beds are smoothed by the hands of affection,
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  Speaker 1: whose agonies are soothed by the presence of a mother
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  Speaker 1: who hears the first feeble cry of her infinite echoed
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: by the joy of exalting noble relatives. Oh, Melmoth, what
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: must be mine, I must say, for in secrecy and
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: in silence, I must see my babe torn from me
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: before I have even kissed it, and the chrism mantle
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: will be one of that mysterious darkness which your fingers
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: have woven. Yet grant me one thing, one thing, continued
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the supply, growing earnest in her prayer, even to agony.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Swear to me that my child shall be baptized according
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: to the forms of the Catholic Church, that it shall
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: be a Christian as far as those forms can make it.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: And I shall feel that if all my fearful presages
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: are fulfilled, I shall leave behind me one who will
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: pray for his father and whose prayer may be accepted.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Promise me, Swear to me, she added, in intenser agony,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: that my child shall be a Christian. Alas if my
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: voice be not worthy to be heard in heaven that
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: of a chair of may Christ himself suffered children to
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: come up to him while on earth? And will he
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: repel them in heaven? Oh? No, no, he will not
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: repel yours. Malmuth listened to her with feelings that it
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: is better to suppress than explain or expatiate. On Thus,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: solemnly adjured. However, he promised that the child should be baptized,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: and added with an expression which Isidore's delight at this concession,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: did not give her time to understand that it should
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: be a Christian as far as the rites and ceremonies
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: of the Catholic Church could make it won, while he
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: added many a bitter hint of the inefficacy of any
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: external rites, and the impotentiality of any hierarchy, and of
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the deadly and desperate impositions of priests under every dispensation,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and exposed them with a spirit at once ludicrous and satanic,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: a spirit that mingled ridicule with horror, and seemed like
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: a harlequin in the infernal regions, flirting with the furies.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Isidore still repeated her solemn request that her child, if
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: it survived her, should be baptized. To this he assented,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and added with a sarcastic and appalling levity and a mahometan.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: If you should change your mind or any other mythology
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: you please to adopt, only send me word. Priests are
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: easily obtained, and ceremonies cheaply purchased. Only let me know
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: your future intentions when you know them yourself, I shall
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: not be here to tell you, said Isidore, replying with
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: profound conviction to this withering levity, like a cold winter day,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: to the glow of a capricious summer, one that blends
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the sunshine and the lightning melmouth. I shall not be
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: here then. And this energy of despair, and a creature
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: so young, so inexperienced except in the vicissitudes of the heart,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: formed a strong contrast to the stony apathy of one
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: who had traversed life from to Beersheba and found all barren,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: or made it so. At this moment, while Isidore wept
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: the cold tears of despair, without daring to ask the
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: hand of him, she loved to dry them. The bells
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: of a neighboring convent, where they were performing a mass
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: for the soul of a departed brother suddenly wrung out.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Isidore seized that moment, when the very air was eloquent
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: with the voice of religion, to impress its power on
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: that mysterious being whose presence inspired her equally with terror
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and with love. Listen, Listen, she cried. The sounds came
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: slowly and stilly on as if it was an involuntary
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: expression of that profound sentiment that night always inspires the
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: reverberating watchwork from sentinel to sentinel. When wakeful and reflecting
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: minds had become the watches of the night, the effect
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: of these sounds was increased by their catching for time
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: to time the deep and thrilling chorus of the voices.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: These voices more than harmonized. They were coincident with the
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: toll of the bell, and seemed, like them set in
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: involuntary motion music played by invisible hands. Listen repeated, isidore?
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Is there no truth in the voice that speaks to
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: you in tones like these? Alas if there be no
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: truth in religion, there is none on earth. Passion itself
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: evanishes into an illusion unless it is hallowed by the
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: consciousness of a God and of futurity. That sterility of
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: the heart that forbids the growth of divine feeling must
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: be hostile also to every tender and generous sentiment. He
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: who is without a God must be without a heart. Oh,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: my love, will you not, as you bend over my grave?
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Wish my last slumbers to have been soothed by sounds
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: like these? Wish that they may whisper peace to your own.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Promise me at least that you will lead your child
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: to my tombstone, that you will suffer it to read
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the inscription that tells I died in the faith of
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Christ and the hope of immortality. Its tears will be
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: powerful pleaders to you, not to deny it the consolation
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: that faith has given me in hours of suffering, and
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the hopes with which it will illuminate my parting hour. Oh,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: promise me this, at least, that you will suffer your
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: child to visit my grave. That is all, Do not
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: interrupt or distract the impression by sophistry or levity, or
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: by that wild and withering eloquence that flashes from your
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: lips not to enlighten but to blast. You will not weep,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: but you will be silent, Leave heaven and nature free
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to their work. The voice of God will speak to
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: its heart and my spirit as it witnesses the conflict
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: will tremble, though in paradise and even in heaven will
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: feel an added joy when it beholds the victory. One.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Promise me, then, swear to me, she added, with agonizing
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: energy of tone and gesture. Your child shall be a Christian,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: said Malmouth, end of chapter thirty four.