Volume III, Chapters 5 and 6, Pages 162–168
1 After the ceremony was performed, a large party assembled at my father’s, it was agreed that Elizabeth and I should pass the afternoon and night at Evian, and return the next morning.
2 Those were the last moments of my life during which I enjoyed the feeling of happiness. We enjoyed the beauty of the scene, sometimes on one side of the lake, where we saw Mont Salêve, the pleasant banks of the Montalêgre, and at a distance, surmounting all, the beautiful Mont Blânc, and the assemblage of mountains that in vain endeavor to emulate her; sometimes coasting the opposite banks, we saw the mighty Jura opposing its dark side to the ambition that would quit its native country.
3 “You are sorrowful, my love. Ah! if you knew what I have suffered, and what I may yet endure, you would endeavour to let me taste the quiet, and freedom from despair, that this one day at least permits me to enjoy.”
4 “Something whispers to me not to depend too much on the prospect that is opened before us. Observe how fast we move along, and the clouds which sometimes obscure and sometimes rise above the dome of Mont Blânc.”
5 The Alps here come closer to the lake, and we approached the amphitheatre of mountains which forms its eastern boundary. The sun sunk beneath the horizon as we landed; and as I touched the shore, I felt those cares and fears revive, which soon were to clasp me, and cling to me for ever.
6 The wind, which had fallen in the south, now rose with great violence in the west. The moon had reached her summit in the heavens, and was beginning to descend; the clouds swept across it swifter than the flight of the vulture, and dimmed her rays, while the lake reflected the scene of the busy heavens, rendered still busier by the restless waves that were beginning to rise. Suddenly a heavy storm of rain descended.
7 had been calm during the day; but so soon as night obscured the shapes of objects, a thousand fears arose in my mind. I was anxious and watchful, while my right hand grasped a pistol which was hidden in my bosom; every sound terrified me.
8 “What is it that agitates you, my dear Victor? What is it you fear?”
9 “This night is dreadful, very dreadful.”
10 I earnestly entreated her to retire, and continued some time walking up and down the passages of the house, inspecting every corner that might afford a retreat to my adversary. But I discovered no trace of him.
11 Suddenly I heard a shrill and dreadful scream. The whole truth rushed into my mind, my arms dropped, the motion of every muscle and fibre was suspended; I could feel the blood trickling in my veins, and tingling in the extremities of my limbs.
12 A fiend had snatched from me every hope of future happiness: no creature had ever been so miserable as I was.
13 But why should I dwell upon the incidents that followed this last overwhelming event. Mine has been a tale of horrors.
14 Know that, one by one, my friends were snatched away; I was left desolate. My own strength is exhausted; and I must tell, in a few words, what remains of my hideous narration.
15 My father yet lived; but sunk under the tidings that I bore. I see him now, his eyes wandered in vacancy. Cursed, cursed be the fiend that doomed him to waste in wretchedness!
16 He could not live under the horrors that were accumulated around him; an apoplectic fit was brought on, and in a few days he died in my arms.
17 What then became of me? Chains and darkness were the only objects that pressed upon me. Melancholy followed, but by degrees I gained a clear conception of my miseries and situation, and was then released from my prison. For they had called me mad; and during many months, as I understood, a solitary cell had been my habitation.
18 As the memory of past misfortunes pressed upon me, I began to reflect on their cause—the monster whom I had created, the miserable daemon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction. I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head.
