ich could not fail to
draw after it the vengeance of the deity. My wishes for a time yielded
to my fears, but this scheme in proportion as I meditated on it, became
more plausible; no other occurred to me so easy and so efficacious.
I endeavoured to persuade myself that the end proposed, was, in the
highest degree praiseworthy, and that the excellence of my purpose would
justify the means employed to attain it.

My resolutions were, for a time, attended with fluctuations and
misgivings. These gradually disappeared, and my purpose became firm; I
was next to devise the means of effecting my views, this did not demand
any tedious deliberation. It was easy to gain access to my father's
chamber without notice or detection, cautious footsteps and the
suppression of breath would place me, unsuspected and unthought of, by
his bed side. The words I should use, and the mode of utterance were not
easily settled, but having at length selected these, I made myself by
much previous repetition, perfectly familiar with the use of them.

I selected a blustering and inclement night, in which the darkness was
augmented by a veil of the blackest clouds. The building we inhabited
was slight in its structure, and full of crevices through which the gale
found easy way, and whistled in a thousand cadences. On this night
the elemental music was remarkably sonorous, and was mingled not
unfrequently with _thunder heard remote_.

I could not divest myself of secret dread. My heart faultered with a
consciousness of wrong. Heaven seemed to be present and to disapprove my
work; I listened to the thunder and the wind, as to the stern voice
of this disapprobation. Big drops stood on my forehead, and my tremors
almost incapacitated me from proceeding.

These impediments however I surmounted; I crept up stairs at midnight,
and entered my father's chamber. The darkness was intense and I
sought with outstretched hands for his bed. The darkness, added to the
trepidation of my thoughts, disabled me from making a right estimate of
distances: I was conscious of this, and when I advanced within the room,
paused.

I endeavoured to compare the progress I had made with my knowledge
of the room, and governed by the result of this comparison, proceeded
cautiously and with hands still outstretched in search of the foot of
the bed. At this moment lightning flashed into the room: the brightness
of the gleam was dazzling, yet it afforded me an exact knowledge of my