Pagina 373 van 483

My change of manner surprised and pleased the magistrate; perhaps

he thought that my former exclamation was a momentary return of

delirium, and now he instantly resumed his former benevolence. He

rose and quitted the room with my nurse, and in a moment my

father entered it.

Nothing, at this moment, could have given me greater pleasure

than the arrival of my father. I stretched out my hand to him and

cried,

"Are you then safe-and Elizabeth-and Ernest?"

My father calmed me with assurances of their welfare and

endeavoured, by dwelling on these subjects so interesting to my

heart, to raise my desponding spirits; but he soon felt that a

prison cannot be the abode of cheerfulness. "What a place is this

that you inhabit, my son!" said he, looking mournfully at the

barred windows and wretched appearance of the room. "You

travelled to seek happiness, but a fatality seems to pursue you.

And poor Clerval-"