were itself the source from which the air became chilled. I have tried
to heap more wood upon the fire, but am too weak to reach it. I cannot
bear to awaken that poor fellow. It is but enduring a little--a very
little longer--and all will be over!

There was a man upon the terrace below the window, walking slowly back
and forwards. What can it mean, so late? It has made me nervous and
irritable to watch his shadow as it crosses before me. There!--how
strange!--he has beckoned to me! Is this real? Now I see no one! Some
trick of imagination; but how weak it has left me! My hand trembles,
too, with a strange fear.

It has struck again! It must be four; and I have slept. What a long
night it has been! O Life! Life! how little your best and highest
ambitions seem to him who sits, like me, waiting to be released! Now and
then the heart beats full and strong, and a momentary sense of vigour
flashes across my mind; and then the icy current comes back, the faint
straggle to breathe shaking the frame as a wrecked vessel trembles with
each crashing wave!

Day breaks at length--that must be the dawn! But my eyes are failing,
and my hands are numbed. Poor Gilbert! how sound is his sleep! He has
turned--and now he dreams! What is he muttering? Good night! good night!
Even so--good night!

*****

How cold--how very cold I feel! I thought it had been over! Oh, for a
little longer of this dalliance here!--ay, even here, on the last shores
of life! Inexpressibly sweet the odours are, and the birds! How I drink
in those strains!--they will float with me along the journey I am going!
Weaker and weaker. This must be death! Farewell!

*****

The circumstances which have placed these papers in my hands afford
me the only apology I can offer for making them public. They were
bequeathed to me, in some sort, as a recompense for services which my
poor master had long intended to have rewarded very differently; nor,
save under the pressure of an actual necessity, should I devote them
now to the purpose of personal assistance. I neither understand how to
correct nor arrange them. I have no skill in editorship, and send them
to the printer without the addition of a letter by any hand except his
who wrote them. It is true, some pages have been withheld--I am not sure
whether necessarily or not--for I have no competent judgment to guide
me. I would, however, hope, that what I here give to the world may,
while benefiting the servant, leave