utiny would annihilate the object
which before seemed to be there.

This then was the sight which Carwin had predicted! This was the event
which my understanding was to find inexplicable! This was the fate
which had been reserved for me, but which, by some untoward chance, had
befallen on another!

I had not been terrified by empty menaces. Violation and death awaited
my entrance into this chamber. Some inscrutable chance had led HER
hither before me, and the merciless fangs of which I was designed to
be the prey, had mistaken their victim, and had fixed themselves in HER
heart. But where was my safety? Was the mischief exhausted or flown? The
steps of the assassin had just been here; they could not be far off; in
a moment he would rush into my presence, and I should perish under the
same polluting and suffocating grasp!

My frame shook, and my knees were unable to support me. I gazed
alternately at the closet door and at the door of my room. At one of
these avenues would enter the exterminator of my honor and my life. I
was prepared for defence; but now that danger was imminent, my means
of defence, and my power to use them were gone. I was not qualified, by
education and experience, to encounter perils like these: or, perhaps,
I was powerless because I was again assaulted by surprize, and had not
fortified my mind by foresight and previous reflection against a scene
like this.

Fears for my own safety again yielded place to reflections on the scene
before me. I fixed my eyes upon her countenance. My sister's well-known
and beloved features could not be concealed by convulsion or lividness.
What direful illusion led thee hither? Bereft of thee, what hold on
happiness remains to thy offspring and thy spouse? To lose thee by a
common fate would have been sufficiently hard; but thus suddenly to
perish--to become the prey of this ghastly death! How will a spectacle
like this be endured by Wieland? To die beneath his grasp would not
satisfy thy enemy. This was mercy to the evils which he previously made
thee suffer! After these evils death was a boon which thou besoughtest
him to grant. He entertained no enmity against thee: I was the object of
his treason; but by some tremendous mistake his fury was misplaced. But
how comest thou hither? and where was Wieland in thy hour of distress?

I approached the corpse: I lifted the still flexible hand, and kissed
the lips which were breathless. Her flowing drapery was discompos