My first thought hurried me to action, and, fixing my
eyes upon Carwin, I exclaimed,--
"O wretch! once more hast thou come? Let it be to abjure thy
malice; to counterwork this hellish stratagem; to turn from me and
from my brother this desolating rage!
"Testify thy innocence or thy remorse; exert the powers which
pertain to thee, whatever they be, to turn aside this ruin. Thou
art the author of these horrors! What have I done to deserve thus
to die? How have I merited this unrelenting persecution? I adjure
thee, by that God whose voice thou hast dared to counterfeit, to
save my life!
"Wilt thou then go?--leave me! Succorless!"
Carwin listened to my entreaties unmoved, and turned from me. He
seemed to hesitate a moment,--then glided through the door. Rage
and despair stifled my utterance. The interval of respite was
past; the pangs reserved for me by Wieland were not to be endured;
my thoughts rushed again into anarchy. Having received the knife
from his hand, I held it loosely and without regard; but now it
seized again my attention, and I grasped it with force.
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