he
threatened me with his heaviest displeasure if I presumed again to
insult his ear by the mention of such folly. I then loved you with a
passion bordering on madness. Led away by your wiles and artifices, I
believed your cold, stony heart felt a reciprocity of tenderness for me,
and I therefore unhesitatingly replied that I never would call any woman
wife but yourself. At these words his fury knew no bounds. He heaped on
you the most insulting epithets, exclaiming that the marriage I talked
of was null and void, and that to punish you for your presumption in
daring even to think of such a thing, he would have you publicly exposed
in the pillory of the city. Yielding alike to the violence of my mad
passion, and the impetuosity of my disposition, I presumed to forbid
him, who was at once my parent and my sovereign, speaking thus
disrespectfully of one I loved far beyond my own life, and I even went
so far as to threaten him if he persisted in so doing. Exasperated at
my conduct, my father struck me. Blinded by rage, I drew my sword, and
threw myself on him with deadly fury. Happily the intervention of Murphy
turned away the blow, and saved me from being as much a parricide in
deed as I was in intention. Do you hear me, madame? A parricide! And in
your defence!"

"Alas! I knew not this misfortune."

"In vain have I sought to expiate my crime. This blow to-day is sent by
Heaven's avenging hand to repay my heavy crime."

"But have I not sufficiently suffered from the inveterate enmity of your
father, who dissolved our marriage? Wherefore add to my misery by doubts
of the sincerity of my affection for you?"

"Wherefore?" exclaimed Rodolph, darting on her looks of the most
withering contempt. "Learn now my reasons, and cease to wonder at the
loathing horror with which you inspire me. After the fatal scene in
which I had threatened the life of my father, I surrendered my sword,
and was kept in the closest confinement. Polidori, through whose
instrumentality our union had been effected, was arrested; and he
distinctly proved that our marriage had never been legally contracted,
the minister, as well as the other persons concerned in its
solemnisation, being merely creatures tutored and bribed by him; so that
both you, your brother, and myself, were equally deceived. The more
effectually to turn away my father's wrath from himself, Polidori did
still more; he gave up one of your letters to your brother, which he had
manage