Pagina 277 van 483

"I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and

hellish triumph; clapping my hands, I exclaimed, 'I too can

create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will

carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment

and destroy him.'

"As I fixed my eyes on the child, I saw something glittering on

his breast. I took it; it was a portrait of a most lovely woman.

In spite of my malignity, it softened and attracted me. For a few

moments I gazed with delight on her dark eyes, fringed by deep

lashes, and her lovely lips; but presently my rage returned; I

remembered that I was for ever deprived of the delights that such

beautiful creatures could bestow and that she whose resemblance I

contemplated would, in regarding me, have changed that air of

divine benignity to one expressive of disgust and affright.