ergy and
gestures of a madman. His glazed eyes seemed bursting from their sockets,
and his upper lip, leaving his teeth bare, gave his mouth the appearance
of a horrible and convulsive smile. He seized my arm with his whole
strength; and, as I felt his grasp, and saw him struggling for words, I
expected to hear curses and execrations, or the wild howl of an infuriated
madman. I was mistaken. The wail of a sickly child, who dreads its
mother's departure, was the only sound to which I could compare that
wretched man's voice. He held me with a force almost supernatural; but
his tongue uttered supplications in a feeble monotonous tone, and with the
most humble and beseeching manner. 'Leave him,' exclaimed he, 'leave him a
little while longer. He will forgive me; I know he will. He spoke that
horrible word to rouse my conscience. But I heard him and came back to him.
I would have toiled and bled for him; he knows that well. Hush! hush! I
cannot hear his voice for my mother's sobs; but I know he will forgive me.
Oh! father, do not refuse! I am humble--I am penitent. Father, I have
sinned against Heaven and before thee--father, I have sinned! Oh! mother,
he is cursing me again. He is lifting his hand to curse me--his right hand.
Look, mother, look! Save me, O God! my father curses me on his dying bed!
Save me, oh!----' The unfinished word resolved itself into a low hollow
groan, and he fell back insensible. I would have assisted him, but his
mother waved me back. 'Better so, better so,' she repeated hurriedly; 'it
is the mercy of God which has caused this--do you do your duty, and I will
do mine,' and she continued to kneel and support the head of her son,
while we fastened and secured down the coffin. At length all was finished,
and then and not till then we carried the wretched youth from the chamber
of death, to one as dark, as gloomy, and as scantily furnished, but having
a wood fire burning in the grate, and a bed with ragged curtains at one
end of it. And here, in comparative comfort, the landlady allowed him to
be placed, even though she saw little chance of her lodgers being able to
pay for the change. Into the glass of water held to his parched lips, as
he recovered his senses, I poured a sufficient quantity of the opiate to
produce slumber, and had the satisfaction of hearing his mother fervently
thank God, as still half unconscious, he swallowed the draught. I thought
he would not have survived the shock he had receive