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Great God! If for one instant I had thought what might be the

hellish intention of my fiendish adversary, I would rather have

banished myself for ever from my native country and wandered a

friendless outcast over the earth than have consented to this

miserable marriage. But, as if possessed of magic powers, the

monster had blinded me to his real intentions; and when I thought

that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far

dearer victim.