第60章

My recent dissipation, and strange remarks, made so soon after his sister's death, were an insult to her memory.Coupling together many circumstances which had at first escaped his observation, he thought I had not treated her well.He wished to know whether he was right in inferring that I meant to cast a reproach upon her memory, and a disrespect upon her family.It was due to the uniform he wore, to demand this explanation.

"This man had a commission in the army--a commission, purchased with my money, and his sister's misery! This was the man who had been the foremost in the plot to ensnare me, and grasp my wealth.This was the man who had been the main instrument in forcing his sister to wed me; well knowing that her heart was given to that puling boy.Due to his uniform!

The livery of his degradation! I turned my eyes upon him--I could not help it--but I spoke not a word.

"I saw the sudden change that came upon him beneath my gaze.He was a bold man, but the colour faded from his face, and he drew back his chair.

I dragged mine nearer to him; and as I laughed--I was very merry then--Isaw him shudder.I felt the madness rising within me.He was afraid of me.

"`You were very fond of your sister when she was alive'--I said--`Very.'

"He looked uneasily round him, and I saw his hand grasp the back of his chair: but he said nothing.

"`You villain,' said I, `I found you out; I discovered your hellish plots against me; I know her heart was fixed on some one else before you compelled her to marry me.I know it--I know it.'

"He jumped suddenly from his chair, brandished it aloft, and bid me stand back--for I took care to be getting closer to him all the time Ispoke.

"I screamed rather than talked, for I felt tumultuous passions eddying through my veins, and the old spirits whispering and taunting me to tear his heart out.

"`Damn you,' said I, starting up, and rushing upon him; `I killed her.

I am a madman.Down with you.Blood, blood! I will have it!'

"I turned aside with one blow the chair he hurled at me in his terror, and closed with him; and with a heavy crash we rolled upon the floor together.

"It was a fine struggle that; for he was a tall strong man, fighting for his life; and I, a powerful madman, thirsting to destroy him.I knew no strength could equal mine, and I was right.Right again, though a madman!

His struggles grew fainter.I knelt upon his chest, and clasped his brawny throat firmly with both hands.His face grew purple; his eyes were starting from his head, and with protruded tongue, he seemed to mock me.I squeezed the tighter.

"The door was suddenly burst open with a loud noise, and a crowd of people rushed forward, crying aloud to each other to secure the madman.

"My secret was out; and my only struggle now was for liberty and freedom.

I gained my feet before a hand was on me, threw myself among my assailants, and cleared my way with my strong arm, as if I bore a hatchet in my hand, and hewed them down before me.I gained the door, dropped over the banisters, and in an instant was in the street.

"Straight and swift I ran, and no one dared to stop me.I heard the noise of feet behind, and redoubled my speed.It grew fainter and fainter in the distance, and at length died away altogether: but on I bounded, through marsh and rivulet, over fence and wall, with a wild shout which was taken up by the strange beings that flocked around me on every side, and swelled the sound, till it pierced the air.I was borne upon the arms of demons who swept along upon the wind, and bore down bank and hedge before them, and spun me round and round with a rustle and a speed that made my head swim, until at last they threw me from them with a violent shock, and I fell heavily to the earth.When I woke I found myself here--here in this gray cell where the sunlight seldom comes, and the moon steals in, in rays which only serve to show the dark shadows about me, and that silent figure in its old corner.When I lie awake, I can sometimes hear strange shrieks and cries from distant parts of this large place.What they are, I know not; but they neither come from that pale form, nor does it regard them.For from the first shades of dusk 'till the earliest light of morning, it still stands motionless in the same place, listening to the music of my iron chain, and watching my gambols on my straw bed."At the end of the manuscript was written, in another hand, this note:

[The unhappy man whose ravings are recorded above, was a melancholy instance of the baneful results of energies misdirected in early life, and excesses prolonged until their consequences could never be repaired.

The thoughtless riot, dissipation, and debauchery of his younger days, produced fever and delirium.The first effects of the latter was the strange delusion, founded upon a well-known medical theory, strongly contended for by some, and as strongly contested by others, that an hereditary madness existed in his family.This produced a settled gloom, which in time developed a morbid insanity, and finally terminated in raving madness.There is every reason to believe that the events he detailed, though distorted in the description by his diseased imagination really happened.It is only matter of wonder to those who were acquainted with the vices of his early career, that his passions, when no longer controlled by reason, did not lead him to the commission of still more frightful deeds.]