tenement that I now suffer in? Shall I hand down this cursed vessel of

humanity, charge it with fresh life as with fresh poison, and dash it,

like a fire, in the faces of posterity? But my vow has been given; the

race shall cease from off the earth. At this hour my brother is making

ready; his foot will soon be on the stair; and you will go with him and

pass out of my sight for ever. Think of me sometimes as one to whom the

lesson of life was very harshly told, but who heard it with courage; as

one who loved you indeed, but who hated herself so deeply that her love

was hateful to her; as one who sent you away and yet would have longed to

keep you for ever; who had no dearer hope than to forget you, and no

greater fear than to be forgotten.'

She had drawn towards the door as she spoke, her rich voice sounding

softer and farther away; and with the last word she was gone, and I lay

alone in the moonlit chamber. What I might have done had not I lain

bound by my extreme weakness, I know not; but as it was there fell upon

me a great and blank despair. It was not long before there shone in at

the door the ruddy glimmer of a lantern, and Felipe coming, charged me

without a word upon his shoulders, and carried me down to the great gate,

where the cart was waiting. In the moonlight the hills stood out

sharply, as if they were of cardboard; on the glimmering surface of the

plateau, and from among the low trees which swung together and sparkled

in the wind, the great black cube of the residencia stood out bulkily,

its mass only broken by three dimly lighted windows in the northern front

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