difficult. Yet it was less painful to see him thus, than to find him

fulfilling the animal functions uninterruptedly, his mind sick the while. I

established myself at his bedside; I never quitted it day or night. Bitter

task was it, to behold his spirit waver between death and life: to see his

warm cheek, and know that the very fire which burned too fiercely there,

was consuming the vital fuel; to hear his moaning voice, which might never

again articulate words of love and wisdom; to witness the ineffectual

motions of his limbs, soon to be wrapt in their mortal shroud. Such for

three days and nights appeared the consummation which fate had decreed for

my labours, and I became haggard and spectre-like, through anxiety and

watching. At length his eyes unclosed faintly, yet with a look of returning

life; he became pale and weak; but the rigidity of his features was

softened by approaching convalescence. He knew me. What a brimful cup of

joyful agony it was, when his face first gleamed with the glance of

recognition--when he pressed my hand, now more fevered than his own, and

when he pronounced my name! No trace of his past insanity remained, to dash

my joy with sorrow.

This same evening his mother and sister arrived. The Countess of Windsor

was by nature full of energetic feeling; but she had very seldom in her

life permitted the concentrated emotions of her heart to shew themselves on

her features. The studied immovability of her countenance; her slow,

equable manner, and soft but unmelodious voice, were a mask, hiding her

fiery passions, and the impatience of her disposition. She did not in the

least resemble either of her children; her black and sparkling eye, lit up

by pride, was totally unlike the blue lustre, and frank, benignant

The Last Man