achieved, we had all entered the tomb together!"

Tears streamed from his eyes. "Again and again," he continued, "will the

tragedy be acted; again I must hear the groans of the dying, the wailing of

the survivors; again witness the pangs, which, consummating all, envelope

an eternity in their evanescent existence. Why am I reserved for this? Why

the tainted wether of the flock, am I not struck to earth among the first?

It is hard, very hard, for one of woman born to endure all that I endure!"

Hitherto, with an undaunted spirit, and an high feeling of duty and worth,

Adrian had fulfilled his self-imposed task. I had contemplated him with

reverence, and a fruitless desire of imitation. I now offered a few words

of encouragement and sympathy. He hid his face in his hands, and while he

strove to calm himself, he ejaculated, "For a few months, yet for a few

months more, let not, O God, my heart fail, or my courage be bowed down;

let not sights of intolerable misery madden this half-crazed brain, or

cause this frail heart to beat against its prison-bound, so that it burst.

I have believed it to be my destiny to guide and rule the last of the race

of man, till death extinguish my government; and to this destiny I submit.

"Pardon me, Verney, I pain you, but I will no longer complain. Now I am

myself again, or rather I am better than myself. You have known how from my

childhood aspiring thoughts and high desires have warred with inherent

disease and overstrained sensitiveness, till the latter became victors. You

know how I placed this wasted feeble hand on the abandoned helm of human

government. I have been visited at times by intervals of fluctuation; yet,

521

The Last Man