My right hand, grasping the unseen knife, was still disengaged. It was
lifted to strike. All my strength was exhausted, but what was sufficient
to the performance of this deed. Already was the energy awakened,
and the impulse given, that should bear the fatal steel to his heart,
when--Wieland shrunk back: his hand was withdrawn. Breathless with
affright and desperation, I stood, freed from his grasp; unassailed;
untouched.
Thus long had the power which controuled the scene forborne to
interfere; but now his might was irresistible, and Wieland in a moment
was disarmed of all his purposes. A voice, louder than human organs
could produce, shriller than language can depict, burst from the
ceiling, and commanded him--_to hold!_
Trouble and dismay succeeded to the stedfastness that had lately been
displayed in the looks of Wieland. His eyes roved from one quarter to
another, with an expression of doubt. He seemed to wait for a further
intimation.
Carwin's agency was here easily recognized. I had besought him to
interpose in my defence. He had flown. I had imagined him deaf to my
prayer, and resolute to see me perish: yet he disappeared merely to
devise and execute the means of my relief.
Why did he not forbear when this end was accomplished? Why did his
misjudging zeal and accursed precipitation overpass that limit? Or meant
he thus to crown the scene, and conduct his inscrutable plots to this
consummation?
Such ideas were the fruit of subsequent contemplation. This moment
was pregnant with fate. I had no power to reason. In the career of my
tempestuous thoughts, rent into pieces, as my mind was, by accumulating
horrors, Carwin was unseen and unsuspected. I partook of Wieland's
credulity, shook with his amazement, and panted with his awe.
Silence took place for a moment; so much as allowed the attention to
recover its post. Then new sounds were uttered from above.
"Man of errors! cease to cherish thy delusion: not heaven or hell, but
thy senses have misled thee to commit these acts. Shake off thy phrenzy,
and ascend into rational and human. Be lunatic no longer."
My brother opened his lips to speak. His tone was terrific and faint. He
muttered an appeal to heaven. It was difficult to comprehend the theme
of his inquiries. They implied doubt as to the nature of the impulse
that hitherto had guided him, and questioned whether he had acted in
consequence of insane perceptions.
To these interrogatories the voice, which now seemed to hover at his
shoulder, loudly answered in the affirmative. Then uninterrupted silence
ensued.
Fallen from his lofty and heroic station; now finally restored to the
perception of truth; weighed to earth by the recollection of his own
deeds; consoled no longer by a consciousness of rectitude, for the
loss of offspring and wife--a loss for which he was indebted to his own
misguided hand; Wieland was transformed at once into the _man of
sorrows!_
He reflected not that credit should be as reasonably denied to the last,
as to any former intimation; that one might as justly be ascribed to
erring or diseased senses as the other. He saw not that this discovery
in no degree affected the integrity of his conduct; that his motives had
lost none of their claims to the homage of mankind; that the preference
of supreme good, and the boundless energy of duty, were undiminished in
his bosom.
It is not for me to pursue him through the ghastly changes of his
countenance. Words he had none. Now he sat upon the floor, motionless in
all his limbs, with his eyes glazed and fixed; a monument of woe.
Anon a spirit of tempestuous but undesigning activity seized him.
He rose from his place and strode across the floor, tottering and at
random. His eyes were without moisture, and gleamed with the fire
that consumed his vitals. The muscles of his face were agitated by
convulsion. His lips moved, but no sound escaped him.
That nature should long sustain this conflict was not to be believed.
My state was little different from that of my brother. I entered, as it
were, into his thought. My heart was visited and rent by his pangs--Oh
that thy phrenzy had never been cured! that thy madness, with its
blissful visions, would return! or, if that must not be, that thy scene
would hasten to a close! that death would cover thee with his oblivion!
What can I wish for thee? Thou who hast vied with the great preacher
of thy faith in sanctity of motives, and in elevation above sensual and
selfish! Thou whom thy fate has changed into paricide and savage! Can I
wish for the continuance of thy being? No.
For a time his movements seemed destitute of purpose. If he walked; if
he turned; if his fingers were entwined with each other; if his hands
were pressed against opposite sides of his head with a force
sufficient to crush it into pieces; it was to tear his mind from
self-contemplation; to waste his thoughts on external objects.
Speedily this train was broken. A beam appeared to be darted into his
mind, which gave a purpose to his efforts. An avenue to escape presented
itself; and now he eagerly gazed about him: when my thoughts became
engaged by his demeanour, my fingers were stretched as by a mechanical
force, and the knife, no longer heeded or of use, escaped from my grasp,
and fell unperceived on the floor. His eye now lighted upon it; he
seized it with the quickness of thought.
I shrieked aloud, but it was too late. He plunged it to the hilt in his
neck; and his life instantly escaped with the stream that gushed from
the wound. He was stretched at my feet; and my hands were sprinkled with
his blood as he fell.
Such was thy last deed, my brother! For a spectacle like this was it
my fate to be reserved! Thy eyes were closed--thy face ghastly with
death--thy arms, and the spot where thou liedest, floated in thy life's
blood! These images have not, for a moment, forsaken me. Till I am
breathless and cold, they must continue to hover in my sight.
Carwin, as I said, had left the room, but he still lingered in the
house. My voice summoned him to my aid; but I scarcely noticed his
re-entrance, and now faintly recollect his terrified looks, his broken
exclamations, his vehement avowals of innocence, the effusions of his
pity for me, and his offers of assistance.
I did not listen--I answered him not--I ceased to upbraid or accuse. His
guilt was a point to which I was indifferent. Ruffian or devil, black
as hell or bright as angels, thenceforth he was nothing to me. I was
incapable of sparing a look or a thought from the ruin that was spread
at my feet.
When he left me, I was scarcely conscious of any variation in the scene.
He informed the inhabitants of the hut of what had passed, and they flew
to the spot. Careless of his own safety, he hasted to the city to inform
my friends of my condition.
My uncle speedily arrived at the house. The body of Wieland was removed
from my presence, and they supposed that I would follow it; but no, my
home is ascertained; here I have taken up my rest, and never will I go
hence, till, like Wieland, I am borne to my grave.
Importunity was tried in vain: they threatened to remove me by
violence--nay, violence was used; but my soul prizes too dearly this
little roof to endure to be bereaved of it. Force should not
prevail when the hoary locks and supplicating tears of my uncle were
ineffectual. My repugnance to move gave birth to ferociousness and
phrenzy when force was employed, and they were obliged to consent to my
return.
They besought me--they remonstrated--they appealed to every duty that
connected me with him that made me, and with my fellow-men--in vain.
While I live I will not go hence. Have I not fulfilled my destiny?
Why will ye torment me with your reasonings and reproofs? Can ye restore
to me the hope of my better days? Can ye give me back Catharine and her
babes? Can ye recall to life him who died at my feet?
I will eat--I will drink--I will lie down and rise up at your
bidding--all I ask is the choice of my abode. What is there unreasonable
in this demand? Shortly will I be at peace. This is the spot which I
have chosen in which to breathe my last sigh. Deny me not, I beseech
you, so slight a boon.
Talk not to me, O my revered friend! of Carwin. He has told thee his
tale, and thou exculpatest him from all direct concern in the fate of
Wieland. This scene of havock was produced by an illusion of the senses.
Be it so: I care not from what source these disasters have flowed; it
suffices that they have swallowed up our hopes and our existence.
What his agency began, his agency conducted to a close. He intended, by
the final effort of his power, to rescue me and to banish his illusions
from my brother. Such is his tale, concerning the truth of which I care
not. Henceforth I foster but one wish--I ask only quick deliverance from
life and all the ills that attend it.--
Go wretch! torment me not with thy presence and thy prayers.--Forgive
thee? Will that avail thee when thy fateful hour shall arrive? Be thou
acquitted at thy own tribunal, and thou needest not fear the verdict
of others. If thy guilt be capable of blacker hues, if hitherto thy
conscience be without stain, thy crime will be made more flagrant by
thus violating my retreat. Take thyself away from my sight if thou
wouldest not behold my death!
Thou are gone! murmuring and reluctant! And now my repose is coming--my
work is done!