ow can this be
reconciled to the stratagem which ruined my brother? There the agency
was at once preternatural and malignant.

The recollection of this fact led my thoughts into a new channel. The
malignity of that influence which governed my brother had hitherto been
no subject of doubt. His wife and children were destroyed; they had
expired in agony and fear; yet was it indisputably certain that their
murderer was criminal? He was acquitted at the tribunal of his own
conscience; his behaviour at his trial and since, was faithfully
reported to me; appearances were uniform; not for a moment did he lay
aside the majesty of virtue; he repelled all invectives by appealing to
the deity, and to the tenor of his past life; surely there was truth in
this appeal: none but a command from heaven could have swayed his will;
and nothing but unerring proof of divine approbation could sustain his
mind in its present elevation.

* Mania Mutabilis. See Darwin's Zoonomia, vol. ii. Class III.
1.2. where similar cases are stated.

Chapter XXI

Such, for some time, was the course of my meditations. My weakness, and
my aversion to be pointed at as an object of surprize or compassion,
prevented me from going into public. I studiously avoided the visits of
those who came to express their sympathy, or gratify their curiosity.
My uncle was my principal companion. Nothing more powerfully tended to
console me than his conversation.

With regard to Pleyel, my feelings seemed to have undergone a total
revolution. It often happens that one passion supplants another. Late
disasters had rent my heart, and now that the wound was in some degree
closed, the love which I had cherished for this man seemed likewise to
have vanished.

Hitherto, indeed, I had had no cause for despair. I was innocent of that
offence which had estranged him from my presence. I might reasonably
expect that my innocence would at some time be irresistably
demonstrated, and his affection for me be revived with his esteem. Now
my aversion to be thought culpable by him continued, but was unattended
with the same impatience. I desired the removal of his suspicions,
not for the sake of regaining his love, but because I delighted in the
veneration of so excellent a man, and because he himself would derive
pleasure from conviction of my integrity.

My uncle had early informed me that Pleyel and he had seen each other,
since the return of the latter from Europe.