her he only wished by any means to obtain my
acquiescence in a measure important to his views, I know not, but he
never left me, nor ever ceased to sustain my fevered and unhallowed
hopes, from the hour in which he first communicated to me the fraudulent
substitution of the will till we repaired together to London. This we
did not do so long as he could detain me in the country by assurances
that I should ruin all by appearing before Isora until you had entirely
deserted her.

Morton, hitherto I have written as if my veins were filled with water,
instead of the raging fire that flows through them until it reaches my
brain, and there it stops, and eats away all things,--even memory,
that once seemed eternal! Now I feel as I approach the consummation
of--ha--of what--ay, of what? Brother, did you ever, when you thought
yourself quite alone, at night, not a breath stirring,--did you ever
raise your eyes, and see exactly opposite to you a devil?--a dread
thing, that moves not, speaks not, but glares upon you with a fixed,
dead, unrelenting eye?--that thing is before me now and witnesses every
word I write. But it deters me not! no, nor terrifies me. I have said
that I would fulfil this task, and I have nearly done it; though
at times the gray cavern yawned, and I saw its rugged walls
stretch--stretch away, on either side, until they reached hell; and
there I beheld--but I will not tell you till we meet there! Now I am
calm again: read on.

We could not discover Isora nor her home: perhaps the priest took care
that it should be so; for, at that time, what with his devilish whispers
and my own heart, I often scarcely knew what I was or what I desired;
and I sat for hours and gazed upon the air, and it seemed so soft and
still that I longed to make an opening in my forehead that it might
enter there, and so cool and quiet the dull, throbbing, scorching
anguish that lay like molten lead in my brain; at length we found the
house. "To-morrow," said the Abbe, and he shed tears over me,--for there
were times when that hard man did feel,--"to-morrow, my child, thou
shalt see her; but be soft and calm." To-morrow came; but Montreuil was
pale, paler than I had ever seen him, and he gazed upon me and said,
"Not to-day, Son, not to-day; she has gone out, and will not return till
nightfall." My brother, the evening came, and with it came Desmarais; he
came in terror and alarm. "The villain Oswald," he said, "has betrayed
all; he drew m