Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/301

Rh after carefully wrapping all my clothes around her, that she might not come in contact with the sand. But not until I had embraced her again and again with all the fervor of the most devoted love, did I consign her to the earth. Even then I seated myself beside her and gazed upon her I know not how long, before I could summon up fortitude enough to close her grave.

At last my strength began to fail me once more, and, fearing that it would desert me altogether before I had completed my task, I buried forever in the bosom of the earth the loveliest and most perfect being that had ever yet adorned it. I then stretched myself upon the grave, with my face to the sand; and, closing my eyes with the determination of never again opening them, I invoked the aid of Heaven, and waited impatiently for death to come. Incredible as it may appear to you, throughout the whole performance of this mournful rite, not a tear fell from my eyes, not a sigh escaped my lips. The depth of my affliction, and my fixed determination to die, had choked the utterance of all expressions of despair and anguish. Nor had I long lain prostrate upon the grave before I lost what little feeling and consciousness I had remaining.