of
these even to superfluity; and there was nothing to prevent each from
assuming possession of his share. We were all equal now; but near at hand
was an equality still more levelling, a state where beauty and strength,
and wisdom, would be as vain as riches and birth. The grave yawned beneath
us all, and its prospect prevented any of us from enjoying the ease and
plenty which in so awful a manner was presented to us.

Still the bloom did not fade on the cheeks of my babes; and Clara sprung up
in years and growth, unsullied by disease. We had no reason to think the
site of Windsor Castle peculiarly healthy, for many other families had
expired beneath its roof; we lived therefore without any particular
precaution; but we lived, it seemed, in safety. If Idris became thin and
pale, it was anxiety that occasioned the change; an anxiety I could in no
way alleviate. She never complained, but sleep and appetite fled from her,
a slow fever preyed on her veins, her colour was hectic, and she often wept
in secret; gloomy prognostications, care, and agonizing dread, ate up the
principle of life within her. I could not fail to perceive this change. I
often wished that I had permitted her to take her own course, and engage
herself in such labours for the welfare of others as might have distracted
her thoughts. But it was too late now. Besides that, with the nearly
extinct race of man, all our toils grew near a conclusion, she was too
weak; consumption, if so it might be called, or rather the over active life
within her, which, as with Adrian, spent the vital oil in the early morning
hours, deprived her limbs of strength. At night, when she could leave me
unperceived, she wandered through the house, or hung over the couches of
her children; and in the day time would sink into a perturbed sleep, while
her murmurs and starts betrayed the unquiet dreams that vexed her. As this
state of wretchedness became more confirmed, and, in spite of her
endeavours at concealment more apparent, I strove, though vainly, to awaken
in her courage and hope. I could not wonder at the vehemence of her care;
her very soul was tenderness; she trusted indeed that she should not
outlive me if I became the prey of the vast calamity, and this thought
sometimes relieved her. We had for many years trod the highway of life hand
in hand, and still thus linked, we might step within the shades of death;
but her children, her lovely, playful, animated children--beings