nder their iron yoke of
self-murder, that others in their turn then take up, borne from age to
age on their willing but aching shoulders. And here again, for the third
time, in the course of five centuries, I have arrived at the summit of
one of the hills which overlooks the city; and perhaps I bring
again with me terror, desolation, and death. And this unhappy city,
intoxicated in a whirl of joys, and nocturnal revelries, knows nothing
about it--oh! it knows not that I am at its very gate. But no! no! my
presence will not be a source of fresh calamity to it. The Lord, in
His unsearchable wisdom, has brought me hither across France, making me
avoid on my route all but the humblest villages, so that no increase
of the funeral knell has, marked my journey. And then, moreover, the
spectre has left me--that spectre, livid and green, with its deep
bloodshot eyes. When I touched the soil of France, its moist and icy
hand abandoned mine--it disappeared. And yet I feel the atmosphere of
death surrounding me still. There is no cessation; the biting gusts
of this sinister wind, which envelop me in their breath, seem by their
envenomed breath to propagate the scourge. Doubtless the anger of the
Lord is appeased. Maybe, my presence here is meant only as a threat,
intending to bring those to their senses whom it ought to intimidate. It
must be so; for were it otherwise, it would, on the contrary, strike a
loud-sounding blow of greater terror, casting at once dread and death
into the very heart of the country, into the bosom of this immense city.
Oh, no! no! the Lord will have mercy; He will not condemn me to this new
affliction. Alas! in this city my brethren are more numerous and more
wretched than in any other. And must I bring death to them? No! the Lord
will have mercy; for, alas! the seven descendants of my sister are at
last all united in this city. And must I bring death to them? Death!
instead of that immediate assistance they stand so much in need of? For
that woman who, like myself, wanders from one end of the world into the
other, has gone now on her everlasting journey, after having confounded
their enemies' plots. In vain did she foretell that great evils still
threatened those who are akin to me through my sister's blood. The
unseen hand by which I am led, drives that woman away from me, even as
though it were a whirlwind that swept her on. In vain she entreated and
implored at the moment she was leaving those who are so