ieland! Wieland! God grant that I am mistaken; but surely something
is wrong. I see it: it is too plain: thou art undone--lost to me and
to thyself." At the same time she gazed on my features with intensest
anxiety, in hope that different symptoms would take place. I replied to
her with vehemence--

"Undone! No; my duty is known, and I thank my God that my cowardice is
now vanquished, and I have power to fulfil it. Catharine! I pity the
weakness of thy nature: I pity thee, but must not spare. Thy life is
claimed from my hands: thou must die!"

"Fear was now added to her grief. 'What mean you? Why talk you of death?
Bethink yourself, Wieland: bethink yourself, and this fit will pass. O
why came I hither! Why did you drag me hither?'

"I brought thee hither to fulfil a divine command. I am appointed thy
destroyer, and destroy thee I must." Saying this I seized her wrists.
She shrieked aloud, and endeavoured to free herself from my grasp; but
her efforts were vain.

"Surely, surely Wieland, thou dost not mean it. Am I not thy wife? and
wouldst thou kill me? Thou wilt not; and yet--I see--thou art Wieland
no longer! A fury resistless and horrible possesses thee--Spare
me--spare--help--help--"

"Till her breath was stopped she shrieked for help--for mercy. When
she could speak no longer, her gestures, her looks appealed to my
compassion. My accursed hand was irresolute and tremulous. I meant
thy death to be sudden, thy struggles to be brief. Alas! my heart was
infirm; my resolves mutable. Thrice I slackened my grasp, and life kept
its hold, though in the midst of pangs. Her eye-balls started from their
sockets. Grimness and distortion took place of all that used to bewitch
me into transport, and subdue me into reverence.

"I was commissioned to kill thee, but not to torment thee with the
foresight of thy death; not to multiply thy fears, and prolong thy
agonies. Haggard, and pale, and lifeless, at length thou ceasedst to
contend with thy destiny.

"This was a moment of triumph. Thus had I successfully subdued the
stubbornness of human passions: the victim which had been demanded was
given: the deed was done past recal.

"I lifted the corpse in my arms and laid it on the bed. I gazed upon
it with delight. Such was the elation of my thoughts, that I even broke
into laughter. I clapped my hands and exclaimed, 'It is done! My sacred
duty is fulfilled! To that I have sacrificed, O my God! thy last and
best gift, my wife