I come now to remove your
terrors; to set you beyond the reach of similar fears; to rebuild
your fame as far as I am able.
"This is the amount of my guilt, and this the fruit of my remorse.
Will you not hear me? Listen to my confession, and then denounce
punishment. All I ask is a patient audience."
"What!" I replied; "was not thine the voice that commanded my
brother to imbrue his hands in the blood of his children?--to
strangle that angel of sweetness, his wife? Has he not vowed my
death, and the death of Pleyel, at thy bidding? Hast thou not made
him the butcher of his family?--changed him who was the glory of
his species into worse than brute?--robbed him of reason and
consigned the rest of his days to fetters and stripes?"
Carwin's eyes glared and his limbs were petrified at this
intelligence. No words were requisite to prove him guiltless of
these enormities: at the time, however, I was nearly insensible to
these exculpatory tokens. He walked to the farther end of the
room, and, having recovered some degree of composure, he spoke:--
"I am not this villain.
Pages:
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484