by beating with my hands my
shivering sides! Kneeling on the hoar moss on one knee, writing on the
other, if the stiff scrawl could be called writing! My feet, by the time
I had done, seeming to have taken root, and actually unable to support me
for some minutes!--Love and rage then kept my heart in motion, [and only
love and rage could do it,] or how much more than I did suffer must I
have suffered!

I told thee, at my melancholy return, what were the contents of the
letter I wrote.* And I showed thee afterwards her tyrannical answer to
it.** Thou, then, Jack, lovedst thy friend; and pitiedst thy poor
suffering Lovelace. Even the affronted God of Love approved then of my
threatened vengeance against the fair promiser; though of the night of my
sufferings, he is become an advocate for her.

* See Vol. II. Letter XX.
** Ibid.

Nay, was it not he himself that brought to me my adorable Nemesis; and
both together put me upon this very vow, 'That I would never rest till I
had drawn in this goddess-daughter of the Harlowes to cohabit with me;
and that in the face of all their proud family?'

Nor canst thou forget this vow. At this instant I have thee before me,
as then thou sorrowfully lookedst. Thy strong features glowing with
compassion for me; thy lips twisted; thy forehead furrowed; thy whole
face drawn out from the stupid round into the ghastly oval; every muscle
contributing its power to complete the aspect grievous; and not one word
couldst thou utter, but Amen! to my vow.

And what of distinguishing love, or favour, or confidence, have I had
from her since, to make me forego this vow!

I renewed it not, indeed, afterwards; and actually, for a long season,
was willing to forget it; till repetitions of the same faults revived the
remembrance of the former. And now adding to those the contents of some
of Miss Howe's virulent letters, so lately come at, what canst thou say
for the rebel, consistent with thy loyalty to thy friend?

Every man to his genius and constitution. Hannibal was called The father
of warlike stratagems. Had Hannibal been a private man, and turned his
plotting head against the other sex; or had I been a general, and, turned
mine against such of my fellow-creatures of my, own, as I thought myself
entitled to consider as my enemies, because they were born and lived in a
different climate; Hannibal would have done less mischief; Lovelace
more.--That would have been the difference.