nother shriek,--a shriek which chilled Rodolph with
terror. After fresh and long torture, the phenomenon ceased by its very
violence. Having reached the last bounds of suffering without death
following, the visual torment ceased; but, according to the regular
course of the malady, a delirious excitement followed the crisis.
Jacques Ferrand became suddenly as stiffened in frame as an epileptic;
his eyelids, until then obstinately closed, suddenly opened, and,
instead of avoiding the light, his eyes fixed themselves on it
immovably, the pupils, in a state of extraordinary dilation and
fixedness, seeming phosphorescent and internally lighted up. He appeared
plunged in a kind of ecstatic contemplation; his body and limbs remained
at first in a state of complete immobility, his features being agitated
by nervous twitches and spasms. His hideous countenance, thus contracted
and twisted, had no longer any human appearance; and it appeared as if
the appetites of the animal, by stifling the intelligence of the man,
impressed on the features of this wretch a character absolutely bestial.
Having attained the mortal point of his madness, he remembered in his
delirium the words of Cecily, who had called him her tiger; gradually
his reason forsook him, and he imagined he was a tiger. His half
uttered, breathless words displayed the disorder of his brain, and the
singular aberration that had seized on him. Gradually his limbs, until
then stiff and motionless, extended; he fell from the sofa, and tried to
rise and walk, but his strength failed him; and he was compelled now to
crawl like a reptile, and now to drag himself along on his hands and
knees,--going, coming, this way and that way, as his visions impelled or
obtained possession of him. Crouched in one of the corners of the room,
like a tiger in his den, his hoarse and furious cries, his grinding of
teeth, the convulsive twistings of the muscles of his face and brows,
and his ardent gaze, gave him a wild and frightful resemblance to this
ferocious brute.

"Tiger--tiger--tiger--that I am!" he said, in a harsh voice, and
gathering himself into a heap. "Yes, tiger! What blood! In my cavern
what rent carcasses--La Goualeuse--the brother of this widow--a small
child, Louise's baby,--these are the carcasses, and my tigress Cecily
will have her share." Then looking at his torn fingers, the nails of
which had grown immensely during his illness, he added, in broken
language, "Oh, my sharp