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

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  Speaker 1: Fuimus known Sumus. When Elinor arrived in Yorkshire, she found
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  Speaker 1: her aunt was dead. Eleanor went to visit her grave.
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  Speaker 1: It was, in compliance with her last requests, placed near
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  Speaker 1: the window of the Independent meeting House, and bore for
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  Speaker 1: inscription her favorite text, Those Whom He Foreknew He Also Predestinated,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera. Elinor stood by the grave some time,
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  Speaker 1: but could not shed a tear. This contrast of a
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  Speaker 1: life so rigid and a death so hopeful, this silence
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  Speaker 1: of humanity and eloquence of the grave pierced through her heart,
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  Speaker 1: as it will through every heart that has indulged in
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  Speaker 1: the inebriation of human passion, and feels that the draft
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  Speaker 1: has been drawn from broken cisterns. Her aunt's death made
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  Speaker 1: Eleanor's life, if possible, more secluded, and her habits more
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  Speaker 1: monotonous than they would otherwise have been. She was very
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  Speaker 1: charitable to the cottages in her neighborhood, but except to
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  Speaker 1: visit their habitations, she never quitted her own. Often she
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  Speaker 1: contemplated a small stream that flowed at the end of
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  Speaker 1: her garden, as she had lost all her sensibility of nature.
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  Speaker 1: Another motive was assigned for this mute and dark contemplation,
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  Speaker 1: and her servant, much attached to her, watched her closely.
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  Speaker 1: She was roused from this fearful state of stupefaction and despair,
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  Speaker 1: which those who have felt shudder at the attempt to describe,
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  Speaker 1: by a letter from Margaret. She had received several from
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  Speaker 1: her which lay unanswered, no unusual thing in those days,
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  Speaker 1: but this she tore open, read with interest inconceivable, and
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  Speaker 1: prepared instantly to answer by action. Margaret's high spirits seemed
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  Speaker 1: to have sunk in her hour of danger. She hinted
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  Speaker 1: that that hour was rapidly approaching, and that she earnestly
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  Speaker 1: implored the presence of her affectionate kinswoman to soothe and
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  Speaker 1: sustain in the moment of her approaching peril. She added
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  Speaker 1: that the manly and affectionate tenderness of John Sandal at
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  Speaker 1: this period had touched her heart more deeply, if possible,
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  Speaker 1: than all the former testimonies of his affection, but that
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  Speaker 1: she could not bear his resignation of all his usual
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  Speaker 1: habits of rural amusement and of the neighboring society, that she,
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  Speaker 1: in vain had chided him from her couch where She
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  Speaker 1: lingered in pain and hope, and hoped that Eleanor's presence
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  Speaker 1: might induce him to yield to her request, as he
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  Speaker 1: must feel on her arrival, the dearest companion of her
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  Speaker 1: youth was present, and that at such a moment a
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  Speaker 1: female companion was more suitable than even the gentlest and
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  Speaker 1: most affectionate of the other sex. Eleanor set out directly.
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  Speaker 1: The purity of her feelings had formed an impenetrable barrier
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  Speaker 1: between her heart and its object, and she apprehended no
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  Speaker 1: more danger from the presence of one who was wedded
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  Speaker 1: and wedded to her relative than from that of her
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  Speaker 1: own brother. She arrived at the cast, so Margaret's hour
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  Speaker 1: of danger had begun. She had been very ill during
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  Speaker 1: the preceding period. The natural consequences of her situation had
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  Speaker 1: been aggravated by a feeling of dignified responsibility on the
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  Speaker 1: birth of an heir to the house of Mortimer, and
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  Speaker 1: this feeling had not contributed to render that situation more supportable. Eleanor,
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  Speaker 1: bent over the bed of pain, pressed her cold lips
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  Speaker 1: to the burning lips of the sufferer, and prayed for her.
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  Speaker 1: The first medical assistance in the country then very rarely
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  Speaker 1: employed on such occasions, had been obtained at a vast expense.
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  Speaker 1: The widow sandal declining, all attendants on the sufferer paced
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  Speaker 1: through the adjacent apartments in agony, unutterable and unuttered. Two
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  Speaker 1: days and nights went on in hope and terror. The
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  Speaker 1: bell ringers sat up in every church within ten miles
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  Speaker 1: round the tenantry crowded round the castle with honest, heartfelt solicitude.
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  Speaker 1: The neighboring nobility sent their messages of inquiry every hour,
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  Speaker 1: and accouchement in a noble family was then an event
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  Speaker 1: of importance. The hour came, twins were born dead, and
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  Speaker 1: the young mother was fated to follow them. Within a
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  Speaker 1: few hours. While life yet remained, Margaret showed the remains
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  Speaker 1: of the lofty spirit of the mortimers. She sought with
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  Speaker 1: her cold hand that of her wretched husband, and of
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  Speaker 1: the weeping Eleanor. She joined them in an embrace which
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  Speaker 1: one of them at least understood, and prayed that their
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  Speaker 1: union might be eternal. She then begged to see the
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  Speaker 1: bodies of her infant sons. They were produced, and it
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  Speaker 1: was said that she uttered expressions intimating that had they
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  Speaker 1: not been the heirs of the mortemer family had not
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  Speaker 1: expectation been wound so high and supported by all the
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  Speaker 1: hopes that life and youth could flatter her with she
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  Speaker 1: and they might yet have existed. As she spoke, her
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  Speaker 1: voice grew feebler and her eyes dim. Their last light
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  Speaker 1: was turned on him she loved, and when sight was gone,
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  Speaker 1: she still felt his arms infold her. The next moment
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  Speaker 1: they enfolded nothing. In the terrible spasms of masculine agony,
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  Speaker 1: the more intensely felt, as they are more rarely indulged.
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  Speaker 1: The young widower dashed himself on the bed, which shook
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  Speaker 1: with his convulsive grief and eleanor losing all sense. But
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  Speaker 1: that of a calamity so sudden and so terrible, echoed
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  Speaker 1: his deep and suffocating sobs, as if she, whom they deplored,
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  Speaker 1: had not been the only obstacle to her happiness. Amid
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  Speaker 1: the voice of mourning that rung through the castle from
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  Speaker 1: vault to tower in that day of trouble, none was
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  Speaker 1: loud like that of the widow Sandal. Her wailings were shrieks,
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  Speaker 1: her grief was despair. Rushing through the rooms like one distracted.
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  Speaker 1: She tore her hair out by the roots and imprecated
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  Speaker 1: the most fearful curses on her head. At length she
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  Speaker 1: approached the apartment where the course lay. The servants, shocked
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  Speaker 1: at her distraction, would have withheld her from entering it,
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  Speaker 1: but could not. She burst into the room, cast one
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  Speaker 1: wild look on its inmates, the still course and the
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  Speaker 1: dumb mourners, and then, flinging herself on her knees before
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  Speaker 1: her son, confessed the secret of her guilt, and developed
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  Speaker 1: to its foul base, the foundation of that pile of
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  Speaker 1: iniquity and sorrow which had now reached its summit. Her
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  Speaker 1: son listened to this horrible confession with fixed eye and
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  Speaker 1: features unmoved, and at its conclusion, when the wretched penitent
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  Speaker 1: implored the assistance of her son to raise her from
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  Speaker 1: her knees, he repelled her outstretched hands, and with a weak,
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  Speaker 1: wild laugh, sunk back on the bed. He never could
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  Speaker 1: be removed from it till the course to which he
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  Speaker 1: clung was borne away. And then the mourners hardly knew
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  Speaker 1: which to deploy, or her who was deprived of the
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  Speaker 1: light of life, or him in whom the light of
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  Speaker 1: reason was extinguished forever the wretched guilty mother, but for
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  Speaker 1: her fate, no one can be solicitous. A few months after,
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  Speaker 1: on her dying bed, declared the secret of her crime
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  Speaker 1: to a minister of an independent congregation, who was induced
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  Speaker 1: by the report of her despair to visit her. She
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  Speaker 1: confessed that, being instigated by avarice, and still more by
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  Speaker 1: the desire of regaining her lost consequence in the family,
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  Speaker 1: and knowing the wealth and dignity her son would acquire
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  Speaker 1: and in which she must participate by his marriage with Margaret,
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  Speaker 1: she had, after using all the means of persuasion an entreaty,
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  Speaker 1: been driven in despair at her disappointment to fabricate a
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  Speaker 1: tale as false as it was horrible, which she related
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  Speaker 1: to her deluded son on the evening before his intended
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  Speaker 1: nuptials with Eleanor. She had assured him he was not
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  Speaker 1: her son, but the offspring of the illicit commerce of
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  Speaker 1: her husband. The preacher with the Puritan mother of Eleanor,
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  Speaker 1: who had formerly been one of his congregation, and whose
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  Speaker 1: well known and strongly expressed admiration of his preaching had
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  Speaker 1: been once supposed extended to his person, had caused her
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  Speaker 1: much jealous anxiety in the early years of their marriage,
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  Speaker 1: and was now made the basis of this horrible fiction.
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  Speaker 1: She added that Margaret's obvious attachment to her cousin had
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  Speaker 1: in some degree palliated her guilt to herself, but that
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  Speaker 1: when she saw him quit her house in despair on
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  Speaker 1: the morning of his intended marriage and rush, he knew
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  Speaker 1: not whither, she was half tempted to recall him and
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  Speaker 1: confess the truth. Her mind again became hardened, and she
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  Speaker 1: reflected that her secret was safe, as she had bound
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  Speaker 1: him by an oath from respect to his father's memory
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  Speaker 1: and compassion to the guilty mother of Eleanor, never to
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  Speaker 1: disclose the truth to her. The event had succeeded to
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  Speaker 1: her guilty wishes, Sandal beheld Eleanor with the eyes of
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  Speaker 1: her brother, and the image of Margaret easily found a
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  Speaker 1: place in his unoccupied affections. But as often befalls to
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  Speaker 1: the dealers in falsehood and obliquity, the apparent accomplishment of
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  Speaker 1: her hopes proved her ruin in the event of the
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  Speaker 1: marriage of John and Margaret. Proving issueless, the estates and
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  Speaker 1: title went to the distant relative named in the will,
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  Speaker 1: and her son, deprived of reason by the calamities in
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  Speaker 1: which her arts had involved him, was by them also
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  Speaker 1: deprived of the wealth and rank to which they were
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  Speaker 1: meant to raise him, and reduced to the small pension
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  Speaker 1: obtained by his former services the poverty of the King,
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  Speaker 1: than himself a pensioner of Louis the fourteenth, forbidding the
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  Speaker 1: possibility of added remuneration. When the minister heard to the
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  Speaker 1: last the terrible confession of the dying penitent in the
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  Speaker 1: awful language ascribed to bishop when consulted by another criminal,
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  Speaker 1: he bid her almost despair and departed. Eleanor has retired
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  Speaker 1: with the helpless object of her unfading love and unceasing care,
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  Speaker 1: to her cottage in Yorkshire. There in the language of
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  Speaker 1: that divine and blind old man, the fame of whose
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  Speaker 1: poetry has not reached this country. It is her delight
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  Speaker 1: to see him sitting in the house, and watch, like
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  Speaker 1: the father of the Jewish champion, the growth of that
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  Speaker 1: god given strength, that intellectual power, which, unlike Samson's, will
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  Speaker 1: never return. After an interval of two years, during which
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  Speaker 1: she had expended a large part of the capital of
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  Speaker 1: her fortune in obtaining the first medical advice for the patient,
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  Speaker 1: and suffered many things of many physicians, she gave up
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  Speaker 1: all hope, and reflecting that the interest of her fortune,
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  Speaker 1: thus diminished, would be but sufficient to procure the comforts
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  Speaker 1: of life for herself and him whom she has resolved
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  Speaker 1: never to forsake, she sat down in patient misery with
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  Speaker 1: her melancholy companion, and added one more to the many
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  Speaker 1: proofs of woman's heart, unwearied in well doing, without the
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  Speaker 1: intoxication of passion, the excitement of applause, or even the
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  Speaker 1: gratitude of the unconscious object. Were this a life of
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  Speaker 1: calmprivation and pulseless apathy, her efforts would scarce have merit,
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  Speaker 1: and her sufferings hardly demand compassion. But it is one
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  Speaker 1: of pain, incessant and imiticable. The first born of her
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  Speaker 1: heart lies dead within it. But that heart is still alive,
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  Speaker 1: with all its keenest sensibilities, its most vivid hopes, and
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  Speaker 1: its most exquisite sense of grief. She sits beside him
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  Speaker 1: all day. She watches that eye whose light was life,
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  Speaker 1: and sees it fixed on her in glassy and unmeaning complacency.
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  Speaker 1: She dreams of that smile which burst on her soul
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  Speaker 1: like the morning sun over a landscape in spring, and
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  Speaker 1: sees that smile of vacancy, which tries to convey satisfaction
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  Speaker 1: but cannot give it the language of expression. Averting her head,
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  Speaker 1: she thinks of other days. A vision passes before her.
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  Speaker 1: Lovely and glorious things, the hues of whose coloring are
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  Speaker 1: not of this world, and whose web is too fine
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  Speaker 1: to be woven in the loom of life, rise to
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  Speaker 1: her eye, like the illusions of enchantment. A strain of rich,
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  Speaker 1: remembered music floats in her hearing. She dreams of the hero,
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  Speaker 1: the lover, the beloved him and whom were united all
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  Speaker 1: that could dazzle the eye, inebriate the imagination, and melt
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  Speaker 1: the heart. She sees him as he first appeared to her,
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  Speaker 1: and the mirage of the desert present, not a vision
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  Speaker 1: more delicious and deceptive. She bends to drink of that
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  Speaker 1: false fountain, and the stream disappears. She starts from her reverie,
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  Speaker 1: and hears the weak laugh of the sufferer as he
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  Speaker 1: moves a little water in a shell, and imagines he
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  Speaker 1: sees the ocean in a storm. She has one consolation
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  Speaker 1: when a short interval of recollection returns. When his speech
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  Speaker 1: becomes articulate, he utters her name, not that of Margaret,
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  Speaker 1: and a beam of early hope dances on her heart
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  Speaker 1: as she hears it, but fades away as fast as
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  Speaker 1: the rare and wandering ray of intellect from the lost
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  Speaker 1: mind of the sufferer. Unceasingly attentive to his health and
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  Speaker 1: his comforts, she walked out with him every evening, but
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  Speaker 1: led him through the most sequestered paths to avoid those
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  Speaker 1: whose mock full persecution or whose vacant pity might be
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  Speaker 1: equally torturing to her feelings or harassing to her still
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  Speaker 1: gentle and smiling companion. It was at this period, said
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  Speaker 1: the stranger to Aliaga, I first became acquainted with I mean.
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  Speaker 1: At this time a stranger who had taken up his
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  Speaker 1: abode near the hamlet where Eleanor resided, was seen to
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  Speaker 1: watch the two figures as they passed slowly on their
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  Speaker 1: retired walk evening after evening. He watched them. He knew
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  Speaker 1: the history of these two unhappy beings, and prepared himself
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  Speaker 1: to take advantage of it. It was impossible, considering their
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  Speaker 1: secluded mode of existence, to obtain an introduction. He tried
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  Speaker 1: to recommend himself by his occasional attentions to the invalid.
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  Speaker 1: He sometimes picked up the flowers that an unconscious hand
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  Speaker 1: flung into the stream, and listened with a gracious smile
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  Speaker 1: to the indistinct sounds in which the sufferer, who still
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  Speaker 1: retained all the graciousness of his perished mind, attempted to
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  Speaker 1: thank him. Eleanor felt grateful for these occasional attentions, but
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  Speaker 1: she was somewhat alarmed at the assiduity with which the
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  Speaker 1: stranger attended their melancholy walk every evening, and, whether encouraged, neglected,
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  Speaker 1: or even repelled, still found the means of insinuating himself
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  Speaker 1: into companions. Even the mournful dignity of Eleanor's demeanor, her
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  Speaker 1: deep dejection, her bows or brief replies were unavailing against
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  Speaker 1: the gentle but indefatigable importunity of the intruder. By degrees.
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  Speaker 1: He ventured to speak to her of her misfortunes, and
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  Speaker 1: that topic is a sure key to the confidence of
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  Speaker 1: the unhappy. Eleanor began to listen to him, and, though
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  Speaker 1: somewhat amazed at the knowledge she displayed of every circumstance
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  Speaker 1: of her life, she could not but feel soothed by
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  Speaker 1: the tone of sympathy in which he spoke and excited
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  Speaker 1: by the mysterious hints of hope which he sometimes suffered
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  Speaker 1: to escape him, as if involuntarily. It was observed soon
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  Speaker 1: by the inmates of the hamlet, whom idleness and the
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: want of any object of excitement had made curious, that
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  Speaker 1: Eleanor and the stranger were inseparable in their evening walks.
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  Speaker 1: It was about a fortnight after this observation was first
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: made that Eleanor, un an, drenched with rain and her
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  Speaker 1: head uncovered, loudly and eagerly, demanded admittance at a late
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: hour at the house of a neighboring clergyman. She was admitted,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: and the surprise of her reverend host at this visit,
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  Speaker 1: equally unseasonable and unexpected, was exchanged for a deeper feeling
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  Speaker 1: of wonder and terror. As she related the cause of it.
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  Speaker 1: He at first imagined, knowing her unhappy situation, that the
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  Speaker 1: constant presence of an insane person might have a contagious
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  Speaker 1: effect on the intellects of one so perseveringly exposed to
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: that presence. As Eleanor, however, proceeded to disclose the awful
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  Speaker 1: proposal and the scarcely less awful name of the unholy intruder.
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  Speaker 1: The clergyman betrayed considerable emotion, and, after a long pause,
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  Speaker 1: desired permission to accompany her on their next meeting. This
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  Speaker 1: was to be the following evening, for the stranger was
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  Speaker 1: unremitting in his attendance on her lonely walks. It is
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  Speaker 1: necessary to mention that this clergyman had been for some
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: years abroad, that events had occurred to him in foreign
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: countries of which strange reports were spread, but on the
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: subject of which he had been always profoundly silent, and that,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: having but lately fixed his residence in the neighborhood, he
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: was equally a stranger to Eleanor, and to the circumstances
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  Speaker 1: of her past life and of her present situation. It
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: was now autumn, the evenings were growing short, and the
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: brief twilight was rapidly succeeded by night. On the dubious
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  Speaker 1: verge of both, the clergyman quitted his house and went
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: in the direction where Eleanor told him she was accustomed
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: to meet the stranger. They were there before him, and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: in the shuddering and averted form of Eleanor and the
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: stern but calm importunity of her companion, he read the
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: terrible secret of their conference. Suddenly he advanced and stood
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  Speaker 1: before the stranger. They immediately recognized each other, an expression
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  Speaker 1: that was never before beheld there, an expression of fear
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  Speaker 1: wandered over the features of the stranger. He paused for
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: a moment, and then departed without uttering a word. Nor
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: was Eleanor ever again molested by his presence. It was
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: some days before the clergyman recovered from the shock of
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: this singular encounter sufficiently to see Eleanor and explain to
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: her the cause of his deep and painful agitation. He
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: sent to announce to her when he was able to
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: receive her, and appointed the knight for the time of meeting,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: for he knew that during the day she never forsook
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the helpless object of her unalienated heart. The night arrived,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: imagined them seated in the antique study of the clergyman,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: whose shelves were filled with the ponderous volumes of ancient learning.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: The embers of a peat fire shed a dim and
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: fitful light through the room, and the single candle burned
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: on a distant oaken stand seemed to shed its light
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  Speaker 1: on that alone. Not a ray fell on the figures
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: of Eleanor and her companion, as they sat in their
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: massive chairs of carved like figures in the richly wrought
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: niches of some Catholic place of worship. That is a
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: most profane and abominable comparison, sat Aliaga, starting from the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: doze in which he had frequently indulged during this long narrative.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: But here the result, said the pertinacious narrator. The clergyman
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: confessed to Eleanor that he had been acquainted with an
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: irishman of the name of Malmoth, whose various erudition, profound intellect,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and intense appetency for information had interested him so deeply
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: as to lead to a perfect intimacy between them. At
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the breaking out of the troubles in England, the clergyman
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: had been compelled with his father's family to seek refuge
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: in Holland. There again he met Melmoth, who proposed to
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: him a journey to Poland. The offer was accepted, and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: to Poland they went. The clergyman here told many extraordinary
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: tales of doctor d and of Albert Alaska, the Polish adventurer,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: who were their companions both in England and Poland. And
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  Speaker 1: he added that he felt his companion, Melmouth was irrevocably
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: attached to the study of that art which is held
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: in just abomination by all who named the name of Christ.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: The power of the intellectual vessel was too great for
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the narrow seas where it was coasting. It longed to
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: set out on a voyage of discovery. In other words,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Melmouth attached himself to those impostors or worse, who promised
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: him the knowledge and the power of the future world
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: on conditions that are unutterable. A strange expression crossed his
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: face as he spoke. He recovered himself and added, from
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: that hour our intercourse or ceased. I conceived of him
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: as of one given up to diabolical delusions to the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: power of the enemy. I had not seen Melmoth for
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: some years. I was preparing to quit Germany, when on
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the eve of my departure I received a message from
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: a person who announced himself as my friend, and who,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: believing himself dying, wished for the attendance of a Protestant minister.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: We were then in the territories of a Catholic electoral bishop.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: I lost no time in attending the sick person. As
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: I entered his room, conducted by a servant, who immediately
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: closed the door and retired. I was astonished to see
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the room filled with an astrological apparatus, books, and implements
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: of a science I did not understand. In a corner
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: there was a bed, near which there was neither priest
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: or physician, relative or friend. On it lay extended the
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: form of Melmoth. I approached and attempted to address to
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: him some words of concer. He waved his hand to
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: me to be silent, and I was so. The recollection
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: of his former habits and pursuits, and the view of
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: his present situation, had an effect that appalled more than
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: it amazed me. Come near, said Melmo, speaking very faintly. Nearer.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I am dying. How my life has been passed? You know,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: but too well. Mine was the great angelic sin, pride
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: and intellectual glorying. It was the first mortal sin, a
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: boundless aspiration after forbidden knowledge. I am now dying. I
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: ask for no forms of religion. I wish not to
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: hear words that have to me no meaning, or that
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I wish had none. Spare your look of horror. I
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: sent for you to exact your solemn promise that you
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: will conceal from every human being the fact of my death.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Let no man know that I died, or when or where.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: He spoke with a distinctness of tone and energy of
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: manner that convinced me he could not be in the
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: state he described himself to be. And I said, but
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I cannot believe you are dying. Your intellects are clear,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: your voice is strong, your language is coherent, and but
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: for the paleness of your face and your lying extended
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: on that bed, I could not even imagine you were ill.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: He answered, have you patience, encouraged to abide by the
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: proof that what I say is true? I replied that
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I doubtless had patience, and for the courage I looked
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: to that being for whose name I had too much
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: reverence to utter in his hearing. He acknowledged my forbearance
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: by a ghastly smile which I understood too well, and
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: pointed to a clock that stood at the foot of
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: his bed. Observe said he the hour hand is on eleven,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: and I am now saying, clear of speech and apparently healthful, terry,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: But an hour and you yourself will behold me dead.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: I remained by his bedside, the eyes of both were
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: fixed intently on the slow motion of the clock. From
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: time to time he spoke, but his strength now appeared
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: obviously declining. He repeatedly urged on me the necessity of
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: profound secrecy, its importance to myself, And yet he hinted
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: at the possibility of our future meeting. I asked why
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: he thought proper to confide to me a secret whose
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: divulgement was so perilous, and which might have been so
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: easily concealed. Unknowing whether he existed or where, I must
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: have been equally ignorant of the mode and place of
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: his death. To this, he returned no answer. As the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: hand of the clock approached the hour of twelve, his
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: countenance changed, his eyes became dim, his speech inarticulate, his
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: jaw dropped, his respiration ceased. I applied a glass to
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: his lips, but there was not a breath to stain it.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: I felt his wrist, but there was no pulse. I
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: placed my hand on his heart. There was not the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: slightest vibration. In a few minutes, the body was perfectly cold.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: I did not quit the room till nearly an hour
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: after the body gave no signs of returning. Animation. Unhappy
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: circumstances detained me long abroad. I was in various parts
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: of the continent, and everywhere I was haunted with the
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: report of Melmoth being still alive. To these reports, I
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: gave no credit and returned to England in the full
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: conviction of his being dead. Yet it was Melmoth who
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: walked and spoke with you the last night of our meeting.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: My eyes never more faithfully attested the presence of living being.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: It was Melmoth himself, such as I beheld him many
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: years ago, when my hairs were dark, my steps were firm.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I am changed. But he is the same time, seems
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to have forborne to touch him from terror. By what
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: means or power he is thus enabled to continue his
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: posthumous and preternatural existence. It is impossible to conceive unless
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: the fearful report that everywhere followed his steps on the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: continent be indeed true. Eleanor, impelled by terror and wild curiosity,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: inquired into that report, which dreadful experience had anticipated the
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: meaning of seek No farther, said the Minister. You know
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: already more than should ever have reached the human ear
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: or entered into the conception of the human mind enough
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: that you have been enabled by divine power to repel
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the assaults of the evil one. The trial was terrible,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: but the result will be glorious. Should the foe persevere
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: in his attempts, remember that he has been already repelled.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Amid the horrors of the dungeon and of the scaffold,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: the screams of bedlam, and the flames of the inquisition.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: He is yet to be subdued by a foe that
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: he deemed, of all others, the least invincible, the withered
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: energies of a broken heart. He has traversed the earth
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: in search of victims, seeking whom he might devour, and
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: has found no prey, even where he might seek for it.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: With all the cupidity of infernal expectation. Let it be
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: your glory and crown of rejoicing that even the feeblest
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of his adversaries has repulsed him with a power that
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: will always annihilate his. Who is that faded form that
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: supports with difficulty and emaciated, invalid, and seems at every
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: step to neath the support she gives It is still
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: eleanor tending John. Their path is the same, but the
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: season is changed, and that change seems to her to
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: have passed alike on the mental and physical world. It
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: is a dreary evening in autumn. The stream flows dark
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and turbid beside their path. The blast is groaning among
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the trees, and the dry, discolored leaves are sounding under
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: their feet. Their walk is uncheered by human converse, for
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: one of them no longer thinks and seldom speaks. Suddenly
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: he gives a sign that he wishes to be seated.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: It is complied with, and she sits beside him on
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the felled trunk of a tree. He declines his head
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: on her bosom, and she feels with delighted amazement, a
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: few tears streaming on it for the first time for years.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: A soft but conscious pressure of her hands seems to
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: her like the signal of reviving intelligence. With breathless hope,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: she watches him as he slowly raises his head and
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: fixes his eyes, God of all consolation, there is intelligence
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: in his glance. He thanks her with an unutterable look
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: for all her care, her long and painful labor of love.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: His lips are open, but long unaccustomed to utter human sounds.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: The effort is made with difficulty. Again, that effort is
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: repeated and fails. His strength is exhausted, his eyes closed,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: His last gentle sigh is breathed on the bosom of
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: faith and love, and Eleanor soon after said to those
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: who surrounded her bed that she died happy since he
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: knew her once more. She gave one parting awful sign
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: to the minister, which was understood and answered. End of
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty two.