Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/123

 bolted and double-lockt all the doors, I proceeded to examine her wounds, that I might be certain of her death. Removing part of her dress, I found that two balls had quite shattered her left breast, and a third lacerated her tender neck; the blood was all clotted, and every limb rendered unpliant by the chill stiffness of death. I sent for her women to undress her entirely, took myself her clothes into my room to search them at leisure, and as I was turning one of her pockets, a small pocket-book, tied with a lilac-colored ribbon, fell out of it. With eagerness I tore it open, and found, besides the note which I once picked up in the church of the Capuchins at St. Jago, another paquet of writings, which I imagined to be of great moment. Unable to read them then, I put them in a secret drawer of my bureau, and returned the pocket-book where I had first discovered it.

Though the shocking mangled state of Elmira's body made it appear to common understanding, that all the interference of art was useless; yet I was not satisfied, till every physical remedy had been tried tending to re-