ence as if I
were suddenly transformed into a loathsome monster, that I must ever
continue to love thee, Fernand, and that I shall anxiously long to
return to thine arms, are truths as firmly based as the foundations of
the island. Thine, then, shall be the last name, thy name shall be the
last word that I will suffer my lips to pronounce ere I once more place
the seal upon them. Yes, I love thee, Fernand; oh! would to God that
thou could'st hear me proclaim how much I love thee, my beauteous, my
strangely-fated Fernand!"

It was almost in a despairing tone that Nisida gave utterance to these
last words; for as the chance of escape from the island grew every
moment less equivocal, by the nearer approach of the fleet, which was,
however, still far from the shore, the intensity of her sensual passion
for Wagner, that passion which she believed to be the purest and most
firmly rooted love, revived; and her heart smote her for her readiness
to abandon him to the solitude of that island. But as she was now
acquainted with all the mysteries of his fate, as she knew that he could
not die for many, many years to come, nor lose that glorious beauty
which had proved alike her pleasure and her pride, her remorse and her
alarms were to a considerable degree mitigated: for she thought within
herself, _although she now spoke aloud no more_; "Death will not snatch
him from me, disease will not impair his godlike features and elegant
form, and he loves me too well not to receive me with open arms when I
shall be enabled to return to him." These were her thoughts: and
starting upon her feet, she compressed her lips tightly, as if to remind
herself that she had once more placed a seal there, a seal not to be
broken for some time. An hour had now passed since Fernand Wagner and
Nisida separated on the seashore; and he did not come back. Meantime the
fleet of ships had drawn nearer, and though she more than once
entertained the idea of hastening after Wagner to implore him to
accompany her whithersoever those vessels were bound, or at least to
part with the embrace of tenderness, yet her fear lest the ships might
sail past without touching at the island, predominated over her softer
feelings. And now, having settled in her mind the course she was to
adopt, she hastened to the stores which she had saved from the wreck of
the corsair vessel, and which had been piled up on the strand the day
after she was first thrown on that Mediterranean is