Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/90

 : 'Oh, say not so! I have just heard of his return from Sarsefield, and that he lives.'

He is dead,' repeated I, with fierceness: 'I know it—it was I that killed him!'

Dead!' she faintly articulated—'and by thee, Clithero! Oh, cursed chance, that hindered thee from killing me also! Dead!—then is the omen fulfilled!—then am I undone! lost for ever!'

"Her eyes now wandered from me, and her countenance sunk into a wild and rueful expression; hope was utterly extinguished in her heart, and life forsook her at the same moment: she sunk upon the floor, pallid and breathless.

"How she came into possession of this knowledge I know not: it is possible that Sarsefield had repented of concealment, and, in the interval that passed between our separation and my encounter with Wiatte, had returned, and informed her of the re-appearance of this miscreant.

"Thus then was my fate consummated: I was rescued from destroying her by a dagger, only to behold her perish by the tidings which I brought: thus was every omen of mischief and misery fulfilled—thus was the enmity of Wiatte rendered efficacious, and the instrument of his destruction changed into the executioner of his revenge.

"Such is the tale of my crimes. It is not for me to hope that the curtain of oblivion will ever shut out the dismal spectacle—it will haunt me for ever: the torments that grow out of it can terminate only with the thread of my existence; but that I know full well will never end: death is but a shifting of the scene, and the endless progress of eternity, which to the good is merely the perfection of felicity, and to the wicked an accumulation of woe. The self-destroyer is his own enemy: this has ever been my opinion; hitherto it has influenced my actions: now, though the belief continues, its influence on my conduct is annihilated. I am no stranger to the depth of that abyss into which I shall plunge.—No matter; change is precious for its own sake.

"Well, I was still to live: my abode must be somewhere fixed: my conduct was henceforth the result of a perverse and rebellious principle; I banished myself for