Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/86

 angelic mother, she has not denied!—what is the recompence that I have made?—how have I discharged the measureless debt of gratitude to which she is entitled? Thus

Cannot my guilt he extenuated? Is there not a good that I can do thee? Must I perpetrate unmingled evil? Is the province assigned me that of an infernal emissary, whose efforts are concentred in a single purpose, and that purpose a malignant one? I am the author of thy calamities—whatever misery is reserved for thee, I am the source whence it flows. Can I not set bounds to the stream? Cannot I prevent thee from returning to a consciousness which, till it ceases to exist, will not cease to be rent and mangled?

Yes; it is in my power to screen thee from the coming storm—to accelerate thy journey to rest:—I will do it!'

"The impulse was not to be resisted: moved with the suddenness of lightning, armed with a pointed implement that lay—it was a dagger: as I set down the lamp, I struck the edge; yet I saw it not, or noticed it not till I needed its assistance: by what accident it came hither, to what deed of darkness it had already been subservient, I had no power to enquire. I stepped to the table and seized it.

"The time which this action required was insufficient to save me—my doom was ratified by Powers which no human energies can counterwork.—Need I go farther? Did you entertain any imagination of so frightful a catastrophe? I am overwhelmed by turns with dismay and with wonder; I am prompted by turns to tear my heart from my breast, and deny faith to the verdict of my senses.

"Was it I that hurried to the deed? No; it was the demon that possessed me: my limbs were guided to the bloody office by a power foreign and superior to mine: I had been defrauded for a moment of the empire of my muscles—a little moment for that sufficed.

"If my destruction had not been decreed, why was the image of Clarice so long excluded? Yet why do I say long? The fatal resolution was conceived, and I hastened