صفحة 385 من 483

I could offer no explanation of them, but their truth in part

relieved the burden of my mysterious woe.

Upon this occasion my father said, with an expression of

unbounded wonder, "My dearest Victor, what infatuation is this?

My dear son, I entreat you never to make such an assertion

again."

"I am not mad," I cried energetically; "the sun and the heavens,

who have viewed my operations, can bear witness of my truth. I am

the assassin of those most innocent victims; they died by my

machinations. A thousand times would I have shed my own blood,

drop by drop, to have saved their lives; but I could not, my

father, indeed I could not sacrifice the whole human race."