te, which
fails to summon up your image before me? Do you not surround me on all
sides? and have I not, like a child, treasured up every trifle which you
have consecrated by your touch?

"Your profile, which was so dear to me, I return to you; and I pray
you to preserve it. Thousands of kisses have I imprinted upon it, and a
thousand times has it gladdened my heart on departing from and returning
to my home.

"I have implored your father to protect my remains. At the corner of the
churchyard, looking toward the fields, there are two lime-trees--there
I wish to lie. Your father can, and doubtless will, do this much for his
friend. Implore it of him. But perhaps pious Christians will not choose
that their bodies should be buried near the corpse of a poor, unhappy
wretch like me. Then let me be laid in some remote valley, or near the
highway, where the priest and Levite may bless themselves as they pass
by my tomb, whilst the Samaritan will shed a tear for my fate.

"See, Charlotte, I do not shudder to take the cold and fatal cup, from
which I shall drink the draught of death. Your hand presents it to me,
and I do not tremble. All, all is now concluded: the wishes and the
hopes of my existence are fulfilled. With cold, unflinching hand I knock
at the brazen portals of Death. Oh, that I had enjoyed the bliss of
dying for you! how gladly would I have sacrificed myself for you;
Charlotte! And could I but restore peace and joy to your bosom, with
what resolution, with what joy, would I not meet my fate! But it is the
lot of only a chosen few to shed their blood for their friends, and by
their death to augment, a thousand times, the happiness of those by whom
they are beloved.

"I wish, Charlotte, to be buried in the dress I wear at present: it has
been rendered sacred by your touch. I have begged this favour of your
father. My spirit soars above my sepulchre. I do not wish my pockets to
be searched. The knot of pink ribbon which you wore on your bosom
the first time I saw you, surrounded by the children--Oh, kiss them a
thousand times for me, and tell them the fate of their unhappy friend! I
think I see them playing around me. The dear children! How warmly have
I been attached to you, Charlotte! Since the first hour I saw you, how
impossible have I found it to leave you. This ribbon must be buried
with me: it was a present from you on my birthday. How confused it all
appears! Little did I then think that I should journey t