Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/182

 I married Juana, (this was the name of the girl whom my ever to be lamented wife had adopted as a companion and a friend) to an honest farmer, and intending to quit the cottage whose presence never ceased to retrace the painful picture of my past happiness, I resigned it to her as a portion, with all its appurtenances. The boon was received with gratitude, and long have its haunts refounded with blessings on the donor.

I derived the greatest comfort from the papers Elmira had left behind her: from them I perceived for the first time, all the extent of the loss I had sustained in that excellent woman. I was very eager to get possession of them, the moment I could, with propriety, do it. It was this eagerness that saved them, as attempts had been made by my invisible persecutors to deprive me of this valuable deposit. But the security of my locks bade defiance to a flight attack, and they wanted perhaps time or inclination, to make a more forcible attempt. On the same evening I paid the last funeral rites to my deceased wife, I perused and burnt them all the next morning. My memory keeps faith-