Classic Audiobook Collection - The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ~ Full Audiobook [scifi]

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Last Man By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Introduction I visited Naples in the year 1818 On the 8th of December of that year My companion and I crossed the bay To visit the antiquities which are scattered on the shores of the bay The translucent and shining waters of the calm sea

Starting point is 00:00:22 covered fragments of old Roman villas which were interlaced by seaweed and received diamond tints from the checkering of the sunbeams. The blue and pellucid element was such as Galatea might have skimmed it in her car of Mother of Pearl. Ocleopatra, more fitly than the Nile, have chosen as the path of her magic ship. Though it was winter, the atmosphere seemed more appropriate to early spring,

Starting point is 00:00:48 and its genial warmth contributed to inspire those sensations of placid delight, which are the portion of every traveller, as he lingers loathed to quit the tranquil bays and radiant promontories of bayi we visited the so-called elysian fields and avernos and wandered through various roamed temples baths and classic spots at length we entered the gloomy cavern of the cumian sibyl our latsaroni bore flaring torches which shone red and almost dusky in the murky subterranean passages whose darkness thirstily surrounding them seemed eager to imbursed, vibe more and more of the element of light. We passed by a natural archway, leading to a second gallery, and inquired if we could not enter there also. The guides pointed to the reflection of their torches on the water that paved it, leaving us

Starting point is 00:01:44 to form our own conclusion, but adding it was a pity, for it led to the Sybil's Cave. Our curiosity and enthusiasm were excited by this circumstance, and we insisted upon attempting the passage. as is usually the case in the prosecution of such enterprises, the difficulties decreased on examination. We found on each side of the humid pathway dry land for the sole of the foot. At length we arrived at a large, desert, dark cavern, which the Lazzoroni assured us was the Sibyls cave. We were sufficiently disappointed, yet we examined it with care, as if its blank, rocky walls could still bear a trace of celestial visitant. on one side was a small opening whither does this lead we asked can we enter here quester poy no said the wild-looking savage who held a torch you can advance but a short distance and nobody visits it

Starting point is 00:02:46 nevertheless i will try it said my companion it may lead to the real cavern shall i go alone or will you accompany me i signified my readiness to proceed but our guides protested against such a measure with great volubility in their native neapolitan dialect with which we were not very familiar they told us that there were spectres that the roof would fall in that it was too narrow to admit us that there was a deep hole within filled with water and we might be drowned my friend shortened the harangue by taking the man's torch from him and we proceeded alone the passage which had first scarcely admitted us quickly grew narrower and lower we were were almost bent double, yet still we persisted in making our way through it. At length we entered a wider space, and the low roof heightened, but as we congratulated ourselves on this change, our torch was extinguished by a current of air, and we were left in utter darkness. The guides bring with them materials for renewing the light, but we had none. Our only resource was to return as we came. We groped round the widened space to find the end. entrance, and after a time fancied that we had succeeded. This proved, however, to be a second passage, which evidently ascended. It terminated, like the former, though something approaching to a ray we could not tell whence, shed a very doubtful twilight in this space. By degrees, our eyes grew somewhat accustomed to this dimness, and we perceived that there was no direct

Starting point is 00:04:25 passage leading us further, but that it was possible to climb one side of the cavern, to a low arch at top which promised a more easy path from whence we now discovered that this light proceeded with considerable difficulty we scrambled up and came to another passage with still more of illumination and this led to another ascent like the former after a succession of these which our resolution alone permitted us to surmount we arrived at a wide cavern with an arched dome-like roof an aperture in the midst Let in the light of heaven, but this was overgrown with brambles and underwood, which acted as a veil, obscuring the day and giving a solemn religious hue to the apartment. It was spacious, and nearly circular, with a raised seat of stone about the size of a Grecian couch at one end. The only sign that life had been here was the perfect snow-white skeleton of a goat, which had probably not perceived the opening as it grazed on the hill above, and had fallen headlong.

Starting point is 00:05:30 ages perhaps had elapsed since this catastrophe and the ruin it had made above had been repaired by the growth of vegetation during many hundred summers the rest of the furniture of the cavern consisted of piles of leaves fragments of bark and a white filmy substance resembling the inner part of the green hood which shelters the grain of the unripe indian corn we were fatigued by our struggles to attain this point and seated ourselves on the rocky couch, while the sounds of tinkling sheep bells and shout of shepherd boy reached us from above. At length my friend, who had taken up some of the leaves strewed about, exclaimed, This is the Sibyls Cave, these are Sibbeline leaves. On examination we found that all the leaves, bark and other substances, were traced with written characters. What appeared to us more astonishing was that these writings were expressed in in various languages, some unknown to my companion, ancient Shaldy and Egyptian hieroglyphics,

Starting point is 00:06:38 oldest the pyramids. Stranger still, some were in modern dialects, English and Italian. We could make art little by the dim light, but they seemed to contain prophecies, detailed relations of events, but lately passed, names not well known, but of modern date, and often exclamations of exaltation or woe, of victory or defeat, feet were traced on their thin, scant pages. This was certainly the Sibyls cave, not indeed exactly as Virgil describes it, but the whole of this land had been so convulsed by earthquake and volcano that the change was not wonderful,

Starting point is 00:07:17 though the traces of ruin were effaced by time, and we probably owed the preservation of these leaves to the accident which had closed the mouth of the cavern, and the swift-growing vegetation which had rendered its sole opening impervious to the storm. we made a hasty selection of such of the leaves whose writings one at least of us could understand and then laden with our treasure we bade due to the dim hyp hypithric cavern and after much difficulty succeeded in rejoining our guides during our stay at naples we often returned to this cave sometimes alone skimming the sunlit sea and each time added to our store since that period whenever the world's circumstance has not imperiously called me away, or the temper of my mind impeded such a study, I have been employed in deciphering these sacred remains. Their meaning, wondrous and eloquent, has often repaid my toil, soothing me in sorrow,

Starting point is 00:08:19 and exciting my imagination to daring flights, through the immensity of nature and the mind of man. For a while my labours were not solitary, but that time is gone, and with a selected and matchless companion of my toils, their dearest reward is also lost to me. Di me etanerre from the other laboro, credea to showarte, ee qualfero pianeta, ne envidio insieme, or my nobio tesoro. I present the public with the latest discoveries in the slight sibling pages. Scattered and unconnected as they were, I have been obliged to add links

Starting point is 00:09:02 and model the work into a consistent form. but the main substance rests on the truths contained in these poetic rhapsodies and the divine intuition which the Cumian damsel obtained from heaven. I have often wondered at the subject of her verses and at the English dress of the Latin poet. Sometimes I have thought that, obscure and chaotic as they are, they owe their present form to me, their decipherer. As if we should give to another artist the painted fragments

Starting point is 00:09:35 which form the mosaic copy of Raphael's transfiguration in St. Peter's, he would put them together in a form whose mode would be fashioned by his own peculiar mind and talent. Doubtless the leaves of the Cumian Sybil have suffered distortion and diminution of interest and excellence in my hands. My only excuse for thus transforming them is that they were unintelligible in their pristine condition. My labours have cheered long hours of solitude and taken me out of a world. which has averted its one's benignant face from me to one glowing with imagination and power. Will my readers ask how I could find solace from the narration of misery and woeful change? This is one of the mysteries of our nature, which holds full sway over me, and from whose influence I cannot escape.

Starting point is 00:10:26 I confess that I have not been unmoved by the development of the tale, and that I have been depressed, nay agonized, at some parts of the recital, which I have faithfully transcribed from my materials. Yet such as human nature, that the excitement of mind was dear to me, and that the imagination, painter of tempest and earthquake, or worse, the stormy and ruin-fraught passions of man, softened my real sorrows and endless regrets, by clothing these fictitious ones in that ideality which takes the mortal sting from pain. I hardly know whether this apology is necessary.

Starting point is 00:11:06 for the merits of my adaptation and translation must decide how far I have well bestowed my time and imperfect powers in giving form and substance to the frail and attenuated leaves of the sybil. End of introduction. Recorded by Gazzina in May 2008. Chapter 1, Volume 1 of The Last Man This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit the Bravox.org. Recording by Lizzie Driver

Starting point is 00:11:49 The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Volume 1 Chapter 1 I am the native of a sea-surrounded nook, a cloud-enshadowed land which, when the surface of the globe, with its shoreless ocean and trackless continents, presents itself to my mind, appears only as an inconsiderable speck in the immense whole and yet when balanced in the scale of mental power far outweighed countries of larger extent and more numerous population so true it is that man's mind alone was the creation of all that was good or great to man and that nature herself was only his first minister england seated far north in the turbid sea now

Starting point is 00:12:41 visits my dreams in the semblance of a vast and well-mannered ship which mastered the winds and rode proudly over the waves in my boyish day she was the universe to me when i stood on my native hills and saw plain and mountain stretch out to the utmost limits of my vision speckled by the dwellings of my countrymen and subdued to fertility by their labours the earth's very centre was fixed for me in that spot and the rest of her orb was as a fable to have forgotten which would have cost neither my imagination nor understanding an effort my fortunes have been from the beginning an exemplification of the power that mutability may possess over the very tenor of man's life with regard to myself this came almost by inheritance my father was one of those men on whom nature had bestowed to prodigality the envied gifts of wit and imagination and then left his bark of life to be impelled by these winds without adding reason as the rudder or judgment as the pilot for the voyage his extraction was obscure but circumstances brought him early into public notice and his small paternal property was soon dissipated in the splendid scene of fashion and luxury in which he was an actor during the short years of thoughtless youth he was adored by the hybrid triflers of the day nor least by the youthful sovereign who escaped from the intrigues of party and the arduous duties of kingly business to find never-ending amusement and exhilaration of spirit in his society my father's impulses never under his own control perpetually led him to difficulties from which his ingenuity alone could extract him and the accumulating pile of debt of honour and of trade which would have bent to earth any other

Starting point is 00:14:51 was supported by him with a light spirit and tameless hilarity while his company was so necessary at the tables and assemblies of the rich that his derelictions were considered venial and he himself received with intoxicating flattery this kind of popularity like every other is evanescent and the difficulties of every kind with which he had to contend increased in a frightful ratio compared with his small means of extracting himself at such times the king in his enthusiasm for him would come to his relief and then kindly take his friend to task my father gave the best promises for amendment but his social disposition his craving for the usual diet of admiration and more than all the fiend of gambling which fully possessed him made his good resolutions transient his promise is vain with the quick sensibility peculiar to his temperament he perceived his power in the brilliant circle to be on the wane the king married and the haughty princess of austria who became as queen of england the head of fashion looked with harsh eyes on his defects and with contempt on the affection her royal husband entertained for him my father felt that his fall was near but so far from profiting by this last calm before the storm to save himself. He sought to forget anticipated evil by making still greater sacrifices to the deity of pleasure, deceitful and cruel arbiter of his destiny. The king, who was a man of excellent

Starting point is 00:16:40 dispositions, but easily led, and now become a willing disciple of his imperious consort. He was induced to look, with extreme disapprobation, and at last with distaste on my father's imprudence and follies. It is true that his presence dissipated these clouds. His warm-hearted frankness, brilliant sallies, and confiding demeanour were irresistible. It was only when, at a distance, while still renewed tales of his errors were poured into his royal friend's ears, that he lost his influence. The Queen's dexterous management was employed to prolong these absences, and gathered together accusations. at length the king was brought to see him in a source of perpetual disquiet knowing that he should pay for the short-lived pleasure of his society by tedious homilies and more painful narrations of excess the truth of which he could not disprove

Starting point is 00:17:45 the result was that he would make one more attempt to reclaim him and in case of ill success cast him off for ever such as seem must have been one of deepest interest and high-wrought passion a powerful king conspicuous for a goodness which had heretofore made him meek and now lofty in his admonitions with alternate entreaty and reproof besought his friend to attend to his real interests resolutely to avoid those fascinations which in fact were fast deserting him, and to spend his great powers on a worthy field in which he, his sovereign, would be his prop, his stay, and his pioneer. My father felt this kindness. For a moment ambitious dreams floated before him, and he thought it would be well to exchange his present pursuits for nobler duties.

Starting point is 00:18:46 With sincerity and fervour, he gave the required promise. As a pledge of continued favour, he received from his royal master a sum of money to defray passing debts, and enable him to enter under good auspices his new career. That very night, while yet full of gratitude and good resolves, this whole sum, and its amount doubled,

Starting point is 00:19:12 was lost at the gambling table. In his despair to repair his first losses, my father risked double stakes, and thus incurred a debt of honour he was wholly unable to pay. A shame to apply again to the king, he turned his back upon London, its false delights in clinging miseries, and, with poverty for his sole companion, buried himself in solitude among the hills and lakes of Cumberland. His wit, his bon mo's, the record of his personal attractions, fascinating manners and social talents, were long remembered and repeated from mouth to mouth.

Starting point is 00:19:56 Ask where now was this favourite of fashion, this companion of the noble, this excelling beam, which guilt with alien splendour the assemblies of the court and the gay. You heard that he was under a cloud, a lost man. Not one thought it belonged to him to repay pleasure by real services.

Starting point is 00:20:17 Or that his long reign of brilliant wit deserved a pension on retiring. The king lamented his absence. He loved to repeat his sayings, relate to the adventures they had had together, and exult his talents. But here ended his reminiscence. Meanwhile, my father, forgotten, could not forget.

Starting point is 00:20:39 He repined for the loss of what was more necessary to him than air or food. The excitements of pleasure, the admiration of the noble, the luxurious and polished living, of the great a nervous fever was the consequence during which he was nursed by the daughter for a poor cottager under whose roof he lodged she was lovely gentle and above all kind to him nor can it afford astonishment that the late idol of high-bred beauty should even in a fallen state appear a being of an elevated and wondrous nature to the lowly cottage girl the attachment between them led to the ill-fated marriage of which i was the offspring notwithstanding the tenderness and sweetness of my mother her husband still deplored his degraded state

Starting point is 00:21:33 unaccustomed to industry he knew not in what way to contribute to the support of his increasing family sometimes he thought of applying to the king pride and shame for a while withheld him and before his necessities became so imperious as to compel him to some kind of exertion he died for one brief interval before this catastrophe he looked forward to the future and contemplated with anguish the desolate situation in which his wife and children would be left his last effort was a letter to the king full of touching eloquence and of occasional flashes of that brilliant spirit which was an integral part of him He bequeathed his widow and orphans to the friendship of his royal master, and felt satisfied that, by this means, their prosperity was better assured in his death than in his life. This letter was enclosed to the care of a nobleman, who, he did not doubt, would perform the last and inexpensive office

Starting point is 00:22:41 of placing it in the king's own hand. He died in debt, and his little property was seized immediately by his creditors. My mother, penniless and burthened with two children, waited week after week, and month after month in sickening expectation of a reply which never came. She had no experience beyond her father's cottage, and the mansion of the Lord of the Manor was the chieftest type of grandeur she could conceive. During my father's life she had been made familiar with the name of royalty and the courtly circle. but such things, ill-according with her personal experience, appeared, after the loss of him, who gave substance and reality to them, vague and fantastical. If, under any circumstances, she could have acquired sufficient courage to address the noble persons

Starting point is 00:23:38 mentioned by her husband. The ill success of his own application caused her to banish the idea. She saw, therefore, no escape from dire punery. Perpetual care joined to sorrow for the loss of the wondrous being, whom she continued to contemplate with ardent admiration, hard labour and naturally delicate health, at length released her from the sad continuity of want and misery. The condition of her orphaned children was peculiarly desolate.

Starting point is 00:24:11 Her own father had been an immigrant from another part of the country, and had died long since. They had no one relation to take her. them by the hand they were outcasts porpers unfriended beings to whom the most scanty pittance was a matter of favour and who were treated merely as children of peasants yet poorer than the poorest who dying had left them a thankless bequest to the close-handed charity of the land i the elder of the two was five years old when my mother died a remembrance of the discourses of my parents and the communications which my mother endeavored to impress upon me concerning my father's friends in slight hope that i might one day derive benefit from the knowledge floated like an indistinct dream through my brain i conceived that i was different and superior to my protectors and companions but i knew not how or whereof the sense of injury associated with the name of kings and noble clung to me, but I could draw no conclusions from such feelings to serve as a guide to action.

Starting point is 00:25:28 My first real knowledge of myself was as an unprotected orphan among the valleys and fells of Cumberland. I was in the service of a farmer, and with crook in hand my dog at my side, I shepherded a numerous flock on the near uplands. I cannot say much in praise of such a life. and its pains far exceeded its pleasures. There was freedom in it, a companionship with nature, and a reckless loneliness. But to these, romantic as they were,

Starting point is 00:26:02 did not accord with the love of action and desire for human sympathy, characteristic of youth. Neither the care of my flock, nor the change of seasons, was sufficient to tame my eager spirit. My outdoor life and unemployed time were the temptations that led me early into lawless habits.

Starting point is 00:26:22 I associated with other friendless like myself. I formed them into a band. I was their chief and captain. All shepherd boys alike, while our flocks were spread over the pastures, we schemed and executed many a mischievous prank, which drew on us the anger and revenge of the rustics. I was the leader and protector of my comrades, and as I became distinguished among them, their misdeeds were usually visited upon me,

Starting point is 00:26:54 but while I endured punishment and pain in their defence, with the spirit of a hero, I claimed as my reward their praise and obedience. In such a school my disposition became rugged but firm. The appetite for admiration and small capacity for self-control, which I inherited from my father, nursed by adversity, made me daring and reckless. I was rough as the elements, and unlearned as the animals I tended. I often compared myself to them, and finding that my chief superiority consisted in power, I soon persuaded myself that it was in power only that I was inferior to the chief despotentates

Starting point is 00:27:37 of the earth. Thus, untaught in refined philosophy, and pursued by a restless feeling of degradation from my true station in society, I wandered among the hills of civilized England, as uncouthous savage as the wolf-breed founder of old Rome. I owned but one law. It was that of the strongest, and my greatest deed of virtue was never to submit. Yet let me a little retract from this sentence I have passed on myself.

Starting point is 00:28:09 My mother, when dying, had, in addition to her other half-forgotten and misapplied lessons, committed, with solemn exhortation, her other child, to my fraternal guardianship, and this one duty I performed to the best of my ability, with all the zeal and affection of which my nature was capable. My sister was three years younger than myself. I had nursed her as an infant, and when the difference of our sexes, by giving us various occupations in a great measure divided us, yet she continued to be the object of my careful love. Orphans, in the fullest sense of the term, we were poorest among the poor, and despised among the unhonoured.

Starting point is 00:28:56 If my daring and courage obtained for me a kind of respectful aversion, her youth and sex, since they did not excite tenderness by proving her to be weak, were the causes of numberless mortifications to her, and her own disposition was not so constituted as to diminish the evil effects of her lowly station. She was a singular being, and, like me, inherited much of the peculiar disposition of our father. Her countenance was all expression. Her eyes were not dark, but impenetrably deep. You seemed to discover space after space in their intellectual glance. and to feel that the soul which was their soul comprehended a universe of thought in its ken she was pale and fair and a golden hair clustered on her temples contrasting its rich hue with the living marble beneath

Starting point is 00:29:58 her coarse peasant dress little consonant apparently with the refinement of feeling which her face expressed yet in a strange manner recorded with it she was like one of guido's saints with heaven in her heart and in her look so that when you saw her you only thought of that within and costume and even feature were secondary to the mind that beamed in her countenance yet though lovely and full of noble feeling my poor pedita for this was the fanciful name my sister had received from a dying parent was not altogether saintly in her disposition Her manners were cold and repulsive. If she had been nurtured by those who had regarded her with affection, she might have been different. But unloved and neglected, she repaid want of kindness, with distrust and silence.

Starting point is 00:30:58 She was submissive to those who held authority over her, but a perpetual cloud dwelt on her brow. She looked as if she expected enmity from every one who approached her. and her actions were instigated by the same feeling all the time she could command she spent in solitude she would ramble to the most unfrequented places and scale dangerous heights that in those envisited spots she might wrap herself in loneliness often she passed whole hours walking up and down the paths of the woods she wove garlands of flowers and ivy or watched the flickering of the shadows and glancing of the leaves sometimes she sat beside a stream and as her thoughts passed threw flowers or pebbles into the waters watching how those swam and these sank or she would set afloat boats formed a bark of trees or leaves with a feather for a sail and intensely watched the navigation of her craft among the rapids and shallows of the brook meanwhile her active fancy wove a thousand combinations she dreamt of moving accidents by flood and field she lost herself delightedly in these self-created wanderings and returned with unwilling spirit to the dull detail of common life

Starting point is 00:32:29 poverty was the cloud that veiled her excellences and all that was good in her seemed about to perish from want of the genial due of affection she had not even the same advantage as i in the recollection of her parents she clung to me her brother as her only friend but her alliance with me completed the distaste that her protectors felt for her and every error was magnified by them into crimes if she had been bred into that sphere of life to which by inheritance the delicate framework of a mind and person was adapted she would have been the object almost of adoration for her virtues were as eminent as her defects all the genius that ennobled the blood of her father illustrated hers a generous tide flowed in her veins artifice envy or meanness were it the antipodes of her nature her countenance when enlightened by amiable feeling might have belonged to a queen of nations her eyes were bright her look fearless although by our situation and dispositions we were almost equally cut off from the usual forms of social intercourse we formed a strong contrast to each other i always required the stimulations of companionship and applause pedita was all sufficient to herself notwithstanding my lawless habits my disposition was sociable hers recluse my life was spent among tangible realities hers was a dream i might be said even to love my enemies since by exciting me they in a sort bestowed happiness upon me pedita almost disliked her friends for they interfered with her visionary moods

Starting point is 00:34:29 all my feelings even of exultation and triumph were chained to bitterness if unparticipated pedita even in joy fled to loneliness and could go on from day to day neither expressing her emotions nor seeking a fellow-feeling in another mind nay she could love and dwell with tenderness on the look and voice of her friend while her demeanour expressed the coldest reserve a sensation with her became a sentiment and she never spoke until she had mingled her perceptions of outward objects with others which were the native growth of her own mind she was like a fruitful soil that imbibed the airs and dews of heaven and gave them forth again to light in loveliest forms of fruits and flowers but then she was often dark and rugged as that soil raked up and new sown with unseen seed. She dwelt in a cottage, whose trim grass-plats sloped down to the waters of the lake of Olswater. A beech wood stretched up the hill behind,

Starting point is 00:35:41 and a pearling brook, gently falling from the acclivity, ran through poplar-shaded banks into the lake. I lived with a farmer whose house was built higher up among the hills. A dark crag rose behind it, and, exposed to the north. the snow lay in its crevices the summer through before dawn i led my flock to the sheep walks and guarded them through the day it was a life of toil for rain and cold were more frequent than sunshine but it was my pride to contem the elements my trusty dog watched the sheep as i slipped away to the rendezvous of my comrades and thence to the accomplishment of our schemes at noon we met again and we threw away in contempt our peasant fare as we built our fireplace and kindled the cheering blaze destined to cook the game stolen from the neighboring preserves

Starting point is 00:36:41 then came the tale of hairbreadth escapes combats with dogs ambush and flight as gypsy-like we encompassed our pot the search after a stray lamb or the devices by which we allude or endeavored to elude punishment filled up the hours of afternoon in the evening my flock went to its fold and i to my sister it was seldom indeed that we escaped to use an old-fashioned phrase scot-free our dainty fare was often exchanged for blows and imprisonment once when thirteen years of age i was sent for a month to the county jail i came out my morals unimproved my hatred to my oppressors increased tenfold bread and water did not tame my blood nor solitary confinement inspire me with gentle thoughts i was angry impatient miserable my only happy hours were those during which i devised schemes of revenge These were perfected in my forced solitude, so that, during the whole of the following season, and I was freed early in September, I never failed to provide excellent and plenteous fare for myself and my comrades. This was a glorious winter. The sharp frost and heavy snows tamed the animals, and kept the country gentlemen by their firesides.

Starting point is 00:38:17 We got more game than we could eat, and my faithful dog, were sleek upon our refuse. Thus, years passed on, and years only added fresh love of freedom and contempt for all that was not as wild and rude as myself. At the age of sixteen I had shot up in appearance to man's estate. I was tall and athletic, I was practiced to feats of strength, and inured to the inclemency of the elements. My skin was embrowned by the sun, My step was firm with conscious power. I feared no man and loved none. In afterlife I looked back with wonder to what I then was.

Starting point is 00:39:02 How utterly worthless I should have become if I had pursued my lawless career. My life was like that of an animal, and my mind was in danger of degenerating into that which informs brute nature. Until now my savage habits had done me no radical mischief. my physical powers had grown up and flourished under their influence, and my mind, undergoing the same discipline, was imbubed with all the hardy virtues.

Starting point is 00:39:34 But now my boasted independence was daily instigating me to acts of tyranny, and freedom was becoming licentiousness. I stood on the brink of manhood. Passions, strong as the trees of a forest, had already taken root within me, and were about to shadow with their noxious overgrowth my path of life i panted for enterprises beyond my childish exploits and formed distempered dreams of future action i avoided my ancient comrades and i soon lost them they arrived at the age when they were sent to fulfil their destined situations in life while i an outcast with none to lead or drive me forward paused the old began to point at me as an example the young to wander at me as a being distinct from themselves i hated them and began last and worth degradation to hate myself

Starting point is 00:40:40 i clunged my ferocious habits yet half despised them i continued my war against civilization and yet entertained a wish to belong to it i revolved again and again all that i remembered my mother to have told me of my father's former life i contemplated the few relics i possessed belonging to him which spoke of greater refinement than could be found among the mountain cottages but nothing in all this served as a guide to lead me to another and pleasanter way of life my father had been connected with nobles but all i knew of such connection was subsequent couldn't neglect, the name of the king, he to whom my dying father had addressed his latest prayers, and who had barbarously slighted them, was associated only with the ideas of unkindness, injustice, and consequent resentment. I was born for something greater than I was, and greater I would become. But greatness, at least to my distorted perceptions, was no necessary associate of goodness,

Starting point is 00:41:54 and my wild thoughts were unchecked by moral considerations when they rioted in dreams of distinction. Thus I stood upon a pinnacle, a sea of evil rolled at my feet. I was about to precipitate myself into it, and rushed like a torrent over all obstructions to the object of my wishes. When a stranger influence came over the current of my fortunes,

Starting point is 00:42:19 and changed their boisterous course to what was in comparison like the gentle meanderings of a meadow encircling streamlet. End of Chapter 1, Volume 1, Chapter 2 of The Last Man. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visitlibrovox.org. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Volume 1, Chapter 2 I lived far from the busy haunts of men, and the rumor of wars or political changes came worn to a mere sound to our mountain abodes.

Starting point is 00:43:07 England had been the scene of momentous struggles during my early boyhood. In the year, 2003, the last of its kings, the ancient friend of my father, had abdicated in compliance with the gentle force of the Roman. remonstrances of his subjects, and a republic was instituted. Large estates were secure to the dethroned monarch in his family, and he received the title of Earl of Windsor, and Windsor Castle, an ancient royalty, with its wide domains were a part of his allotted wealth. He died soon after, leaving two children, a son and a daughter. The ex-Queen, a princess of the house of Austria, had long impelled her husband to withstand the

Starting point is 00:43:45 necessity of the times. She was haughty and fearless. She cherished a love of her. She cherished a love of power, and a bitter contempt for him who had to spoil himself of a kingdom. For her children's sake alone she consented to remain, shorn of regality, a member of the English Republic. When she became a widow, she turned all her thoughts to the educating of her son Adrian, second Earl of Windsor, so as to accomplish her ambitious ends, and with his mother's milk he imbibed, and was intended to grow up in the steady purpose of reacquiring his lost crown. Adrian was now fifteen years of age. He was addicted to study. He was addicted to study and imbued beyond his years with learning and talent. Report said that he had already begun

Starting point is 00:44:25 to thwart his mother's views and to entertain Republican principles. However this might be, the haughty countess entrusted none with the secrets of her family tuition. Adrian was bred up in solitude and kept apart from the natural companions of his age and rank. Some unknown circumstance now induced his mother to send him from under her immediate tutelage, and we heard that he was about to visit Cumberland. A thousand tales were wrong. rife, explanatory of the Countess of Windsor's conduct, none true probably, but each day it became more certain that we should have the noble scion of the late Regal House of England among us. There was a large estate with a mansion attached to it belonging to this family at Alswater.

Starting point is 00:45:07 A large park was one of its appendages, laid out with great taste and plentifully stocked with game. I had often made depredations on these preserves, and the neglected state of the property facilitated my incursions. When it was decided that the young Earl of Windsor should visit Cumberland, workmen arrived to put the house and grounds in order for his reception. The apartments were restored to their pristine splendor, and the park, all disrepairs restored, was guarded with unusual care. I was beyond measure disturbed by this intelligence. It roused all my dormant recollections,

Starting point is 00:45:40 my suspended sentiments of injury, and gave rise to the new one of revenge. I could no longer attend to my occupations, all my plans and devices were forgotten. I seemed about to begin life anew, and that under no good auspices. The tug of war, I thought, was now to begin. He would come triumphantly to the district, to which my parent had fled broken-hearted. He would find the ill-fated offspring, bequeathed with such vain confidence to his royal father, miserable paupers. That he should know of our existence, and treat us near at hand, with the same contumely which his father had practiced in distance and absence,

Starting point is 00:46:16 appear to me the certain consequence of all that had gone before. Thus then, I should meet this titled Stripling, the son of my father's friend. He would be hedged in by servants. Nobles and the sons of nobles were his companions. All England rang with his name, and his coming, like a thunderstorm, was heard from far, while I, unlettered and unfashioned, should, if I came in contact with him, in the judgment of his courtly followers, bear evidence in my very person to the propriety of that ingratitude, which had made me the degraded being I appeared. With my mind fully occupied by these ideas, I might be said as if fascinated to haunt the destined abode of the young Earl. I watched the progress of the improvements and stood by the unlading wagons, as various articles of luxury brought from

Starting point is 00:47:03 London were taken forth and conveyed into the mansion. It was part of the ex-Queen's plan to surround her son with princely magnificence. I beheld rich carpets and silken hangings, ornaments of gold, richly embossed metals, emblazoned furniture, and all the appendages of high rank arranged, so that nothing but what was regal and splendor should reach the eye of one of royal descent. I looked on these, I turned my gaze to my own mean dress. Whence sprung this difference? Whence but from ingratitude, from falsehood, from a dereliction on the part of the prince's father, of all noble sympathy and generous feeling. Datless, he also, whose blood received a mingling tide from his proud mother,

Starting point is 00:47:46 he, the acknowledged focus of the kingdom's wealth and nobility, had been taught to repeat my father's name with disdain, and to scoff at my just claims to protection. I strove to think that all this grandeur was but more glaring infamy, and that, by planting his gold and woven flag beside my tarnished and tattered banner, he proclaimed not his superiority, but his debasement. yet i envied him his stud of beautiful horses his arms of costly workmanship the praise that attended him the adoration ready servitor high place and high esteem i considered them as forcibly wrenched from me and envied them all with novel and tormenting bitterness to crown my vexation of spirit perdita the visionary perdita seemed to awake to real life with transport when she told me that the earl of windsor was about to arrive

Starting point is 00:48:37 "'And this pleases you?' I observed moodily. "'Indeed it does, Lionel,' she replied. "'I quite long to see him. "'He is the descendant of our kings, "'the first noble of the land. "'Everyone admires and loves him, "'and they say that his rank is his least merit. "'He is generous, brave, and affable.'

Starting point is 00:48:55 "'You have learned a pretty lesson, Perdita,' said I, "'and repeat it so literally "'that you forget the while the proofs we have "'of the earl's virtues. "'His generosity to us is manifest in our plenty, "'his bravery in the pretext, protection he affords us. His affability and the notice he takes of us. His rank is least merit, do you say? Why all his virtues are derived from his station only, because he is rich, he is called generous. Because he is

Starting point is 00:49:20 powerful, brave, because he is well served, he is affable. Let them call him so. Let all England believe him to be thus. We know him. He is our enemy, our pernurious, dastrily arrogant enemy. If he were gifted with one particle of the virtues you call his, he would do justly by us, if it were only to shoo, that if he must strike, it should not be a fallen foe. His father injured my father. His father, unassailable on his throne, dare despise him who only stooped beneath himself, when he deigned to associate with the royal ingrate. We, descendants from the one and the other, must be enemies also.

Starting point is 00:49:56 He shall find that I can feel my injuries, and he shall learn to dread my revenge. A few days after, he arrived. Every inhabitant of the most miserable cottage went to swell the stream of population that poured forth to meet him. Even Perdita, in spite of my late Philippic, crept near the highway, to behold this idol of all hearts. I, driven half mad, as I met party after party of the country people in their holiday best, ascending the hills, escaped to their cloud-veiled summits, and looking on the sterile rocks about me, exclaimed, They do not cry, long live the earl. nor, when night came, accompanied by drizzling rain and cold, would I return home, for I knew that

Starting point is 00:50:38 each cottage rang with the praises of Adrian, as I felt my limbs grow numb and chill, my pain served as food for my insane aversion. Nay, I almost triumphed in it, since it seemed to afford me reason and excuse for my hatred of my unheeding adversary. All was attributed to him, for I confounded so entirely the idea of father and son, that I forgot that the latter might be wholly unconscious of his parents' neglect of us. And as I struck my aching head with my hand, I cried, He shall hear of this, I will be revenged. I will not suffer like a spaniel. He shall know, beggar and friendless as I am, that I will not tamely submit to injury. Each day, each hour added to these exaggerated wrongs. His praises were so much adder's stings infixed in my vulnerable

Starting point is 00:51:24 breast. If I saw him at a distance riding a beautiful horse, my blood boiled with rage, the air seemed poisoned by his presence, and my very native English was changed to a vile jargon, since every phrase I heard was coupled with his name and honor. I panted to relieve this painful heart-burning by some misdeed that should rouse him to a sense of my antipathy. It was the height of his offending that he should occasion in me such intolerable sensations, and not deign himself to afford any demonstration that he was aware that I even lived to feel them. It soon became known that Adrian took great delight in his park and preserves. He never sported, but spent hours in watching the tribes of lovely and almost tame animals

Starting point is 00:52:06 with which it was stocked, and ordered that greater care should be taken of them than ever. Here was an opening for my plans of offense, and I made use of it with all the brute impetuosity I derive from my active mode of life. I proposed the enterprise of poaching on his domain to my few remaining comrades, who were the most determined and lawless of the crew, but they were the first determined and lawless of the crew, but they all shrunk from the peril, so I was left to achieve my revenge myself. At first my exploits were unperceived. I increased in daring, footsteps on the dewy grass, torn boughs, and marks of slaughter. At length betrayed me to the gamekeepers. They kept

Starting point is 00:52:42 better watch. I was taken and sent to prison. I entered its gloomy walls in a fit of triumphant ecstasy. He feels me now, I cried, and shall again and again. I passed but one day in confinement. in the evening I was liberated, as I was told, by the order of the earl himself. This news precipitated me from my self-raised pinnacle of honor. He despises me, I thought, but he shall learn that I despise him, and hold an equal contempt his punishments and his clemency. On the second night after my release, I was again taken by the gamekeepers, again imprisoned, and again released, and again, such was my pertinacity, did the fourth night find me in the

Starting point is 00:53:22 Forbidden Park. The gamekeepers were more enraged than their lord by my obstinacy. They had received orders that if I were taken again, I should be brought to the Earl, and his lenity made them expect a conclusion which they considered ill-befitting my crime. One of them, who had been from the first the leader among those who had seized me, resolved to satisfy his own resentment before he made me over to the higher powers. The late setting of the moon, and the extreme caution I was obliged to use in this my third expedition consumed so much time that something like a qualm of fear came over me

Starting point is 00:53:55 when I perceived dark night yield to twilight. I crept along by the fern on my hands and knees seeking the shadowy coverts of the underwood while the birds awoke with unwelcome song above, and the fresh morning wind, playing among the boughs, made me suspect a footfall

Starting point is 00:54:11 at each turn. My heart beat quick as I approached the palings. My hand was on one of them. A leap would take me to the other side, when two keepers sprang from an ambush upon me. One knocked me down, and proceeded to inflict a severe horse whipping. I started up. A knife was in my grasp. I made a plunge at his raised right arm and inflicted a deep, wide wound in his hand. The rage and yells of the wounded man, the howling execrations of his comrade, which I answered with equal bitterness and fury, echoed through the dell. Morning broke more and more, ill-accordant in its celestial beauty with our brute and noisy

Starting point is 00:54:46 contest. I and my enemy were still struggling when the wounded man exclaimed, The Earl! I sprang out of the Herculean hold of the keeper, panting from my exertions. I cast furious glances on my persecutors, and placing myself with my back to a tree, resolved to defend myself to the last. My garments were torn, and they, as well as my hands, were stained with the blood of the man I had wounded. One hand grasped the dead birds, my hard-earned prey. The other held a knife. My hair was matted, my face, besmeared with the same guilty signs that bore witness against me on the dripping instrument I clenched. My whole appearance was haggard and squalid. Tall and muscular as I was in form,

Starting point is 00:55:27 I must have looked like, what indeed I was, the merest ruffian that ever trod the earth. The name of the earl startled me, and caused all the indignant blood that warmed my heart to rush into my cheeks. I had never seen him before. I figured to myself a haughty, assuming youth, who would take me to task if he deigned to speak to me, with all the arrogance of superiority. My reply was ready, a reproach I deemed calculated to sting his very heart. He came up the while, and his appearance blew aside, with gentle Western breath, my cloudy wrath. A tall, slim, fair boy, with a physiognomy expressive of the excess of sensibility and refinement, stood before me. The morning sunbeams tinged with gold, his silken hair, and spread light and glory over the

Starting point is 00:56:12 his beaming countenance. How is this? he cried. The men eagerly began their defense. He put them aside, saying, Two of you at once, on a mere lad, for shame. He came up to me. Vernie, he cried. Lionel Verney, do we meet thus for the first time?

Starting point is 00:56:28 We were born to be friends to each other, and though ill fortune has divided us, will you not acknowledge the hereditary bond of friendship, which I trust will hear after unite us? As he spoke, his earnest eyes fixed on me, seemed to read my very soul. My heart, my savage, revengeful heart, felt the influence of sweet benignity sink upon it, while his thrilling voice, like sweetest melody, awoke a mute echo within me,

Starting point is 00:56:53 stirring to its steps the life-blood in my frame. I desired to reply, to acknowledge his goodness, accept his proffered friendship, but words, fitting words, were not afforded to the rough mountaineer. I would have held up my hand, but its guilty stain restrained me. Adrian took pity on my faltering mean. "'Come with me,' he said. "'I have much to say to you. "'Come home with me.

Starting point is 00:57:15 "'You know who I am?' "'Yes,' I exclaimed, "'I do believe that I now know you, "'that you will pardon my mistakes, my crime.' "'Adrian smiled gently, "'and after giving his orders to the gamekeepers, "'he came up to me, "'putting his arm in mine,

Starting point is 00:57:30 "'and we walked together to the mansion. "'It was not his rank. "'After all that I have said, "'Surely it will not be suspected "'that it was Adrian's rank, "'that from the first, "'subdued my heart of hearts, and laid my entire spirit prostrate before him.

Starting point is 00:57:45 Nor it was I alone who felt thus intimately his perfections. His sensibility and courtesy fascinated everyone. His vivacity, intelligence, and active spirit of benevolence completed the conquest. Even at this early age, he was deep red and imbued with the spirit of high philosophy. This spirit gave a tone of irresistible persuasion to his intercourse with others, so that he seemed like an inspired musician, who struck with unerringed, skill, the liar of mind, and produced thence divine harmony. In person he hardly appeared of this world.

Starting point is 00:58:19 His slight frame was over-informed by the soul that dwelt within it. He was all mind, man but a rush against his breast, and it would have conquered his strength, but the might of his smile would have tamed a hungry lion, or caused a legion of armed men to lay their weapons at his feet. I spent the day with him. At first he did not recur to the past, or indeed to any personal occurrences. He wished probably to inspire me with confidence, and give me time to gather together my scattered thoughts. He talked of general subjects, and gave me ideas I had never before conceived. We sat in his library, and he spoke of the old Greek sages, and of the power which they had acquired over the minds of men, through the force of love and wisdom only. The room was

Starting point is 00:59:04 decorated with the busts of many of them, and he described their characters to me. As he spoke, I felt subject to him, and all my boasted pride and strength were subdued by the honeyed accents of this blue-eyed boy. The trim and pale domain of civilization, which I had before regarded from my wild jungle as inaccessible, had its wicket opened by him. I stepped within, and felt as I entered, that I trod my native soil. As evening came on, he reverted to the past. I have a tale to relate, he said, and much explanation to give concerning the past. Perhaps you've can assist me to curtail it. Do you remember your father? I had never the happiness of seeing him, but his name is one of my earliest recollections. He stands written in my mind's tablets,

Starting point is 00:59:52 as the type of all that was gallant, amiable, and fascinating in man. His wit was not more conspicuous than the overflowing goodness of his heart, which he poured in such full measure on his friends, as to leave, alas, small remnant for himself. Encouraged by this encomium, I proceeded in answer to his inquiries to relate what I remembered of my parent, and he gave an account of those circumstances which had brought about a neglect of my father's testamentary letter. When, in after-times, Adrian's father, then King of England, felt his situation become more perilous, his line of conduct more embarrassed, again and again he wished for his early friend, who might stand a mound against the impetuous anger of his queen, a mediator between him and the Parliament. From the time that he quitted London on

Starting point is 01:00:40 the fatal night of his defeat at the gaming table, the king had received no tidings concerning him, and when, after the lapse of years, he exerted himself to discover him, every trace was lost. With fonder regret than ever, he clung to his memory, and gave it in charge to his son, if ever he should meet this valued friend, in his name to bestow every sucker, to assure him that to the last, his attachment survived, separation, and silence. A short time before Adrian's visit to Cumberland, the heir of the nobleman to whom my father had confided his last appeal to his royal master, put this letter, its seal unbroken, into the young Earl's hands. It had been found cast aside with a mass of papers of old date,

Starting point is 01:01:24 an accident alone brought it to light. Adrian read it with deep interest, and found there that living spirit of genius and wit he had so often heard commemorated. He discovered the name of the spot with her my father had retreated, and where he died, he learned the existence of his orphan children, and during the short interval between his arrival at Oldswater in our meeting in the park, he had been occupied in making inquiries concerning us, and arranging a variety of plans for our benefit, preliminary to his introducing himself to our notice. The mode in which he spoke of my father was gratifying to my vanity, the veil which he delicately cast over his benevolence, in alleging a dutious fulfillment of the king's latest will was soothing to my pride.

Starting point is 01:02:09 Other feelings, less ambiguous, were called into play by his conciliating manner and the generous warmth of his expressions, respect rarely before experienced, admiration, and love. He touched my rocky heart with his magic power, and the stream of affection gushed forth, imperishable and pure. In the evening we parted. He pressed my hand. We shall meet again. Come to me to me tomorrow. I clasped that kind hand. I tried to answer. A fervent, God bless you, was all my ignorance could frame of speech, and I darted away, oppressed by my new emotions. I could not rest. I sought the hills, a west wind swept them, and the stars glittered above. I ran on, careless of outward objects, but trying to master the struggling spirit within me by means of bodily fatigue. This, I thought, is power, not to be strong of limb, heart of heart, ferocious and daring, but kind, compassionate, and soft.

Starting point is 01:03:07 Stopping short, I clasped my hands, and with the fervor of a new proselyte, cried, Doubt me not, Adrian, I also will become wise and good, and then, quite overcome, I wept aloud. As this gust of passion passed from me, I felt more composed. I lay on the ground, and giving the reins to my thoughts, repassed in my mind my former life, and began, fold by fold, to unwind the many errors of my heart. and to discover how brutish, savage, and worthless I had hitherto been. I could not, however, at that time feel remorse, for me thought I was born anew. My soul threw off the burden of past sin to commence a new career in innocence and love. Nothing harsh or rough remained to jar with the

Starting point is 01:03:51 soft feelings which the transactions of the day had inspired. I was as a child, lisping its devotions after its mother, and my plastic soul was remolded by a master hand, which I neither desired nor was able to resist. This was the first commencement of my friendship with Adrian, and I must commemorate this day as the most fortunate of my life. I now began to be human. I was admitted within that sacred boundary which divides the intellectual and moral nature of man from that which characterizes animals. My best feelings were called into play to give fitting responses to the generosity, wisdom, and amenity of my new friend. He, with a noble goodness all his own, took infinite delight in bestowing to prodigality the treasures of his mind and fortune

Starting point is 01:04:38 on the long-neglected son of his father's friend, the offspring of that gifted being whose excellencies and talents he had heard commemorated from infancy. After his abdication, the late king had retreated from the sphere of politics, yet his domestic circle afforded him small content. The ex-Queen had to be a few none of the virtues of domestic life, and those of courage and daring which she possessed were rendered null by the secession of her husband. She despised him, and did not care to conceal her sentiments. The king had, in compliance with her exactions, cast off his old friends, but he had acquired no new ones under her guidance. In this stirth of sympathy he had recourse to his almost

Starting point is 01:05:20 infant son, and the early development of talent and sensibility rendered Adrian no unfitting depository of his father's confidence. He was never weary of listening to the latter's often repeated accounts of old times, in which my father had played a distinguished part. His keen remarks were repeated to the boy, and remembered by him. His wit, his fascinations, his very faults were hallowed by the regret of affection. His loss was sincerely deplored. Even the queen's dislike of the favorite was ineffectual to deprive him of his son's admiration. It was bitter, sarcastic, contemptuous, but as she bestowed her heavy censure alike on his virtues as his errors, on his devoted friendship and his ill-bustowed loves, on his disinterestedness and his

Starting point is 01:06:06 prodigality, on his prepossessing grace of manner, and the facility with which he yielded to temptation, her double-shot proved too heavy, and fell short of the mark. Nor did her angry dislike prevent Adrian from imaging my father, as he had said, the type of all that was gallant, amiable and fascinating in man. It was not strange, therefore, that when he heard of the existence of the offspring of this celebrated person, he should have formed the plan of bestowing on them all the advantages his rank made him rich to afford. When he found me a vagabond shepherd of the hills, a poacher, an unlettered savage, still his kindness did not fail. In addition to the opinion he entertained

Starting point is 01:06:46 that his father was to a degree culpable of neglect towards us, and that he was bound to every possible reparation, he was pleased to say that under all my ruggedness there glimmered forth an elevation of spirit, which could be distinguished from mere animal courage, and that I inherited a similarity of countenance to my father, which gave proof that all his virtues and talents had not died with him. Whatever those might be which descended to me, my noble young friend resolved should not be lost for want of culture. Acting upon this plan in our subsequent intercourse, he led me to wish to participate in that cultivation which graced his own intellect. My active mind, when once it seized upon this new idea, fastened on it with extreme avidity. At first it was the great object of my ambition to

Starting point is 01:07:32 rival the merits of my father, and render myself worthy of the friendship of Adrian, but curiosity soon awoke and an earnest love of knowledge, which caused me to pass days and nights in reading and study. I was already well acquainted with what I may term the panorama of nature, the change of seasons and the various appearances of heaven and earth. But I was at once startled and enchanted by my sudden extension of vision when the curtain, which had been drawn before the intellectual world, was withdrawn, and I saw the universe, not only as it presented itself to my outward senses, but as it had appeared to the wisest among men. Poetry and its creations, philosophy and its researches and classifications, alike awoke the sleeping ideas in my mind and gave me new

Starting point is 01:08:18 ones. I felt as the sailor, who from the top mass first discovered the shore of America, and like him I hastened to tell my companions of my discoveries in unknown regions, but I was unable to excite in any breast the same craving appetite for knowledge that existed in mine. Even Perdita was unable to understand me. I had lived in what is generally called the world of reality, and it was awakening to a new country to find that there was a deeper meaning in all I saw, besides that which my eyes conveyed to me. The visionary Prudita beheld in all this only a new gloss upon an old reading, and her own was sufficiently inexhaustible to content her.

Starting point is 01:08:59 She listened to me, as she had done to the narration of my adventures, and sometimes took an interest in this species of information, but she did not, as I did, look on it as an integral part of her being, which having obtained I could no more put off than the universal sense of touch. We both agreed in loving Adrian, although she, not having yet escaped from childhood, could not appreciate as I did the extent of his merits, or feel the same sympathy in his pursuits and opinions. I was forever with him. There was a sensibility and sweetness in his disposition that gave a tender and unnorthly tone to our converse. Then he was as gay as a lark, caroling

Starting point is 01:09:38 from its sky tower, soaring in thought as an eagle, innocent as the mild-eyed dove. He could dispel the seriousness of Perdida and take the sting from the torturing activity of my nature. I looked back to my restless desires and painful struggles with my fellow beings as to a troubled dream, and felt myself as much changed as if I had transmigrated into another form, whose fresh censorium and mechanism of nerves had altered the reflection of the apparent universe in the mirror of the mind. But it was not so. I was the same in strength, in earnest craving for sympathy in my yearning for active exertion. My manly virtues did not desert me, for the which Urania spared the locks of Samson, while he reposed at her feet, but all was softened and humanized.

Starting point is 01:10:25 Nor did Adrian instruct me only in the cold truce of history and philosophy. At the same time that he taught me by their means to subdue my own reckless and uncultured spirit, he opened to my view the living page of his own heart, and gave me to feel and understand its wondrous character. ex-Queen of England had, even during infancy, endeavored to implant daring and ambitious designs in the mind of her son. She saw that he was endowed with genius and surpassing talent. These she cultivated for the sake of afterwards using them for the furtherance of her own views. She encouraged his craving for knowledge and his impetuous courage. She even tolerated his tameless love of freedom under the hope that this would, as is too often the case, lead to a passion for

Starting point is 01:11:09 command. She endeavored to bring him up in a sense of resentment towards, and a desire to revenge himself upon, those who had been instrumental in bringing about his father's abdication. In this she did not succeed. The accounts furnished him, however distorted, of a great and wise nation asserting its right to govern itself, excited his admiration. In early days he became a Republican from principle. Still his mother did not despair, to the love of rule and haughty pride of birth, she added determined ambition, patience, and self-control. She devoted herself to the study of her son's disposition. By the application of praise, censure, and exhortation, she tried to seek and strike the fitting chords, and though the melody that followed her touch seemed discord to her, she built her hopes on his talents,

Starting point is 01:11:59 and felt sure that she would at last win him. The kind of banishment he now experienced arose from other causes. The ex-Queen had also a daughter, now 12 years of age. His fairy sister, Adrian was wont to call her, a lovely animated little thing, all sensibility and truth. With these, her children, the noble widow constantly resided at Windsor, and admitted no visitors except her own partisans, travelers from her native Germany, and a few of the foreign ministers. Among these, and highly distinguished by her, was Prince Ziami, ambassador to England from the free states of Greece. and his daughter, the young princess Evadne, passed much of her time at Windsor Castle. In company with this sprightly and clever Greek girl, the Countess would relax from her usual state.

Starting point is 01:12:46 Her views with regard to her own children placed all her words and actions relative to them under restraint. But Evadne was a plaything she could in no way fear, nor were her talents and vivacity slight alleviations to the monotony of the Countess's life. Evadne was 18 years of age, although they spent much of the time. time together at Windsor, the extreme youth of Adrian prevented any suspicion as to the nature of their intercourse. But he was ardent and tender of heart beyond the common nature of man, and had already learnt to love, while the beauteous Greek smiled benignantly on the boy. It was strange to me, who, though older than Adrian, had never loved, to witness the whole

Starting point is 01:13:25 heart sacrifice of my friend. There was neither jealousy, inquietude, or mistrust in his sentiment. It was devotion and faith. was swallowed up in the existence of his beloved, and his heartbeat only in unison with the pulsations that vivified hers. This was the secret law of his life. He loved and was beloved. The universe was to him a dwelling to inhabit with his chosen one, and not either a scheme of society or an enchantment of events that could impart to him either happiness or misery. What, though life and the system of social intercourse were a wilderness, a tiger-haunted jungle, through the mist of its errors in the depths of its savage recesses, there was a disentangled and flowery pathway, through which they might journey in safety and delight.

Starting point is 01:14:13 Their track would be like the passage of the Red Sea, which they might traverse with unwet feet, though a wall of destruction were impending on either side. Alas, why must I record the hapless delusion of this matchless specimen of humanity? What is there in our nature that is forever urging us on towards pain and misery? We are not formed for enjoyment, and however we may be attuned to the reception of pleasurable emotion, disappointment is the never-failing pilot of our life's spark, and ruthlessly carries us on to the shoals. Who was better framed than this highly gifted youth to love and be beloved, and to reap unalienable joy from an unblamed passion? If his heart had slept but a few years longer, he might have been saved, but it awoke in its infancy, it had power, but no knowledge, and it was ruined, even as a

Starting point is 01:15:03 too early blowing bud is nipped by the killing frost. I did not accuse Evadne of hypocrisy or a wish to deceive her lover, but the first letter that I saw of hers convinced me that she did not love him. It was written with elegance, and, foreigner as she was, with great command of language. The handwriting itself was exquisitely beautiful. There was something in her very paper in its folds, which even I, who did not love, was withal unskilled in such matters, could discern as being tasteful. There was much kindness, gratitude and sweetness in her expression, but no love.

Starting point is 01:15:38 Evadne was two years older than Adrian, and who, at 18, ever loved one so much their junior. I compared her placid epistles with the burning ones of Adrian. His soul seemed to distill itself into the words he wrote, and they breathed on the paper, bearing with them a portion of the life of love, which was his life. The very writing used to exhaust him, and he would weep over them, merely from the excess of emotion they awakened in his heart. Adrian's soul was painted in his countenance, and concealment or deceit were at the antipodes to the dreadless frankness of his nature.

Starting point is 01:16:14 Evadne made it her earnest request that the tale of their loves should not be revealed to his mother, and after for a while contesting the point he yielded to her. A vain concession, his demeanor quickly betrayed his secret to the quick eyes of the ex-Queen, With the same wary prudence that characterized her whole conduct, she concealed her discovery, but hastened to remove her son from the sphere of the attractive Greek. He was sent to Cumberland, but the plan of correspondence between the lovers, arranged by Evadne, was effectually hidden from her. Thus the absence of Adrian, concerted for the purpose of separating, united them in firmer bonds than ever.

Starting point is 01:16:52 To me he discoursed ceaselessly of his beloved Ionian. her country, its ancient annals, its late memorable struggles, were all made to bar take in her glory and excellence. He submitted to be away from her because she commanded this submission, but for her influence he would have declared his attachment before England, and resisted with unshaken constancy his mother's opposition. Evadne's feminine prudence perceived how useless any assertion of his resolves would be till added years gave weight to his power. perhaps there was besides a lurking dislike to bind herself in the face of the world to one whom she did not love, not love at least with that passionate enthusiasm which her heart told her she might one day feel towards another.

Starting point is 01:17:36 He obeyed her injunctions and passed a year in exile in Cumberland. End of Volume 1, Chapter 2. Volume 1, Chapter 3 of The Last Man. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 1, Chapter 3. Happy, thrice happy were the months and weeks and hours of that year. Friendship, hand-in-hand with admiration, tenderness and respect, built a bower of delight in my heart, late, rough as an

Starting point is 01:18:23 untrod wild in America, as the homeless wind or herbless sea. insatiate thirst for knowledge and boundless affection for adrian combined to keep both my heart and understanding occupied and i was consequently happy what happiness is so true and unclouded as the overflowing and talkative delight of young people in our boat upon my native lake beside the streams and the pale bordering poplars in valley and over hill my crook thrown aside a nobler flock to ten than silly sheep even a flock of new-born ideas i read or listened to adolph to adolphs i read or listened to adrian and his discourse, whether it concerned his love or his theories for the improvement of man, alike entranced me. Sometimes my lawless mood would return, my love of peril, my resistance to authority, but this was in his absence. Under the mild sway of his dear eyes, I was obedient and good as a boy of five years old, who does his mother's bidding. After a residence of about a year at Olswater, Adrian visited London, and came back full of plans for our benefit. You must begin life,

Starting point is 01:19:26 he said, you are 17, and longer delay would render the necessary apprenticeship more and more irksome. He foresaw that his own life would be one of struggle, and I must partake his labors with him. The better to fit me for this task, we must now separate. He found my name a good passport to preferment, and he had procured for me the situation of private secretary to the ambassador at Vienna, where I should enter on my career under the best auspices. In two years I should return to my country, with a name well known and a reputation already found it. And Perdita? Perdita was to become the pupil, friend, and younger sister of Evadne.

Starting point is 01:20:04 With his usual thoughtfulness he had provided for her independence in this situation. How refused the offers of this generous friend? I did not wish to refuse them, but in my heart of hearts, I made a vow to devote life, knowledge, and power, all of which, and as much as they were of any value, he had bestowed on me, all, all my capacities and hopes, do him alone. alone I would devote. Thus I promised myself as I journey towards my destination with roused an ardent expectation, expectation of the fulfillment of all that in boyhood we promise ourselves

Starting point is 01:20:35 of power and enjoyment in maturity. Me thought the time was now arrived, when childish occupations laid aside, I should enter into life. Even in the Elyesian fields, Virgil describes the souls of the happy as eager to drink of the wave which was to restore them to this mortal coil. The young are seldom in Elycium, for their desires outstripping possibility leave them as poor as a moneyless debtor. We are told by the wisest philosophers of the dangers of the world, the deceits of men, and the treason of our own hearts. But not the less fearlessly does each put off his frail bark from the port, spread the sail, and strain his oar, to attain the multitudinous streams of the sea of life. How few in use prime moor their vessels on the golden sands, and collect

Starting point is 01:21:21 the painted shells that strew them. But all, at close of day, with riven planks and rent canvas make for sure, and are either wrecked air they reach it, or find some wave-beaten haven, some desert strand, whereupon to cast themselves and die unmoorned. A truce to philosophy. Life is before me, and I rush into possession. Hope, glory, love, and blameless ambition are my guides. And my soul knows no dread. What has been, though sweet, is gone. The present is good only because it is about to change, and then to come is all my own. Do I fear that my heart palpitates? High aspirations cause the flow of my blood. My eyes seem to penetrate the cloudy midnight of time, and to discern within the depths of its darkness the fruition of all my soul desires. Now pause, during my journey I might

Starting point is 01:22:11 dream, and with buoyant wings reach the summit of life's high edifice. Now that I am arrived at its base, my pinions are furled, and the mighty stairs are before me, and step by step I must ascend the wondrous vein. Speak what door is opened? Behold me in a new capacity, a young diplomatist, one among the pleasure-seeking society of a gay city, a youth of promise, favorite of the ambassador. All was strange and admirable to the shepherd of Cumberland. With breathless amaze I entered on the gay scene whose actors were, the lilies glorious as Solomon, who toil not, neither do they spin. Soon, too soon, I entered the giddy whirl, forgetting my studious hours and the companionship of Adrian, passionate desire of sympathy,

Starting point is 01:22:57 an ardent pursuit for a wish for object still characterized me. The sight of beauty entranced me, and attractive manners and man or woman won my entire confidence. I called it rapture, when a smile made my heartbeat, and I felt the life's blood tingle in my frame, when I approached the idol which for a while I worshipped. The mere flow of animal spirits was paradise, and at night's clothes I only desired a renewal of the intoxicating delusion. The dazzling light of ornamented rooms lovely forms arrayed in splendid dresses. The motions of a dance, the voluptuous tones of exquisite music, cradled my senses in one delightful dream.

Starting point is 01:23:35 And is not this in its kind happiness? I appeal to moralists and sages. I ask, if in the calm of their measured reveries, if in the deep meditations which fill their hours, they feel the ecstasy of a youthful tyro and the school. of pleasure, can the calm beams of their heaven-seeking eyes equal the flashes of mingling passion which bind his, or does the influence of cold philosophy steep their soul in a joy equal to his engaged in this dear work of youthful revelry? But in truth, neither the lonely meditations

Starting point is 01:24:06 of the hermit nor the tumultuous raptures of the reveler are capable of satisfying man's heart. From the one we gather unquiet speculation from the other saiety, the mind flags beneath the of thought, and droops in the heartless intercourse of those whose sole aim is amusement. There is no fruition in their vacant kindness, and sharp rocks lurk beneath the smiling ripples of these shallow waters. Thus I felt, when disappointment, weariness, and solitude drove me back upon my heart, to gather thence the joy of which it had become barren. My flagging spirits ask for something to speak to the affections, and not finding it, I drooped. Thus, notwithstanding the thoughtless delight that waited on a

Starting point is 01:24:48 its commencement, the impression I have of my life at Vienna is melancholy. Gersh has said that in youth we cannot be happy unless we love. I did not love, but I was devoured by a restless wish to be something to others. I became the victim of ingratitude and cold coquetry. Then I desponded and imagined that my discontent gave me a right to hate the world. I receded to solitude. I had recourse to my books, and my desire again to enjoy the society of Adrian became a burning thirst. emulation that in its excess almost assumed the venomous properties of envy gave a sting to these feelings at this period the name and exploits of one of my countrymen filled the world with admiration relations of what he had done conjectures concerning his future actions were the never-failing topics of the hour I was not angry on my own account, but I felt as if the praises which this idol received

Starting point is 01:25:43 were leaves torn from the laurels destined for Adrian, but I must enter into some account of this darling of fame, this favor of the wonder-loving world. Lord Raymond was the sole remnant of a noble but impoverished family. From early youth he had considered his pedigree with complacency, and bitterly lamented his want of wealth. His first wish was aggrandizement, and the means that led towards this end were secondary considerations. Haughty, yet trembling to every demonstration of respect, ambitious but too proud to shoe his ambition, willing to achieve honor, yet a votary of pleasure he entered upon life.

Starting point is 01:26:20 He was met on the threshold by some insult, real or imaginary, some repulse, where he least expected it, some disappointment, hard for his pride to bear. He writhed beneath an injury he was unable to revenge, and he quitted England with a vow not to return, till the good time should arrive when she might feel the power of him she now despised. He became an adventurer in the Greek wars. His reckless courage and comprehensive genius brought him into notice. He became the darling hero of this rising people. His foreign birth, and he refused to throw off his allegiance to his native country,

Starting point is 01:26:55 alone prevented him from filling the first offices in the state. But, though others might rank higher in title and ceremony, Lord Raymond held a station above and beyond all this. He led the Greek armies to victim. their triumphs were all his own. When he appeared, whole towns poured forth their population to meet him. New songs were adapted to their national heirs, whose themes were his glory, valor, and munificence. A truce was concluded between the Greeks and the Turks. At the same time, Lord Raymond, by some unlooked-for chance, became the possessor of an immense fortune in

Starting point is 01:27:28 England, whither he returned, crowned with glory, to receive the mead of honor and distinction before denied to his pretensions. His proud heart rebel. His proud heart rebelled. against this change. In what was the despised Raymond not the same? If the acquisition of power in the shape of wealth caused this alteration, that power should they feel as an iron yoke. Power, therefore, was the aim of all his endeavors, aggrandiz meant the mark at which he forever shot. In open ambition or close intrigue, his end was the same, to attain the first station in his own country. This account filled me with curiosity. The events that in succession followed his return to England gave me keener feelings.

Starting point is 01:28:09 Among his other advantages, Lord Raymond was supremely handsome. Everyone admired him. Of women, he was the idol. He was courteous, honey-tonged, and adept in fascinating arts. What could not this man achieve in the busy English world? Change succeeded to change. The entire history did not reach me, for Adrian had ceased to write, and Perdido was a laconic correspondent.

Starting point is 01:28:30 The rumor went that Adrian had become, how right the fatal word, mad, that Lord Raymond was the favorite of the ex-Queen, her daughter's destined husband, nay, more, that this aspiring noble revived the claim of the House of Windsor to the crown, and that, on the event of Adrian's incurable disorder and his marriage with the sister, the brow of the ambitious Raymond might be encircled with the magic ring of regality. Such a tale filled the trumpet of many-voiced fame. Such a tale rendered my longer stay at Vienna, away from the friend of my youth, intolerable. Now I must fulfill my vow, now range myself at his side, and be his ally and support till death. Farewell to courtly pleasure, to politic intrigue, to the maze of passion and folly,

Starting point is 01:29:16 all hail England, native England receive thy child. Thou art the scene of all my hopes, the mighty theatre on which has acted the only drama that can, heart and soul, bear me along with it in its development. a voice most irresistible, a power omnipotent, drew me thither. After an absence of two years, I landed on its shores, not daring to make any inquiries, fearful of every remark. My first visit would be to my sister, who inhabited a little cottage, a part of Adrian's gift, on the borders of Windsor forest. From her I should learn the truth concerning our protector. I should hear why she had withdrawn from the protection of Princess Evadne, and be instructed as to the influence which this overtopping

Starting point is 01:29:58 and towering raiment exercised over the fortunes of my friend. I had never before been in the neighborhood of Windsor. The fertility and beauty of the country around now struck me with admiration, which increased as I approached the antique wood. The ruins of majestic oaks, which had grown, flourished, and decayed during the progress of centuries, marked with the limits of the forest once reached, while the shattered palings and neglected underwood shooed that this part was deserted for the younger plantations, which owed their birth to the beginning of the 19th century, and now stood in the pride of maturity. Perdita's humble dwelling was situated on the skirts of the most ancient portion. Before it was stretched, Bishopgate Heath, which towards the east appeared interminable,

Starting point is 01:30:41 and was bounded to the west by Chapel Wood and the grove of Virginia Water. Beyond, the cottage was shadowed by the venerable fathers of the forest, under which the deer came to graze, and which for the most part, hollow and decayed, formed fantastic groups which contrasted with the regular beauty of the younger trees. These, the offspring of a later period, stood erect and seemed ready to advance fearlessly into coming time. While those outworn stragglers, blasted and broke, clung to each other, their weak bows sighing as the wind buffeted them, a weather-beaten crew. A light railing surrounded the garden of the cottage, which, low-roofed, seemed to submit to the majesty of nature, and cower amidst the venerable remains of the forgotten time. Flowers, the children of the spring, adorned her garden encasements. In the midst of lowliness there was an air of elegance which spoke the graceful taste of the inmate.

Starting point is 01:31:34 With a beating heart, I entered the enclosure. As I stood at the entrance, I heard her voice, melodious as it had ever been, which before I saw her assured me of her welfare. A moment more, and Pordita appeared, she stood before me in the fresh bloom of youthful womanhood, different from and yet the same as the mountain girl I had left. Her eyes could not be deeper than they were in childhood, nor her countenance more expressive, but the expression was changed and improved. Intelligence sat on her brow. When she smiled, her face was embellished by the softest sensibility, and her low, modulated voice seemed tuned by love.

Starting point is 01:32:12 Her person was formed in the most feminine proportions. She was not tall, but her mountain life had given freedom to her motions, so that her light steps scarce made her footfall heard as she tripped across the hall to meet me. When we had parted, I had clasper to my bosom with unrestrained warmth. We met again, and new feelings were awakened, when each beheld the other, childhood passed, as full-grown actors on this changeful scene. The pause was but for a moment. The flood of association and natural feeling, which had been checked,

Starting point is 01:32:42 again rushed in full tide upon our hearts, and with tenderest emotion we were swiftly locked in each other's embrace. This burst of passionate feeling over, with calm thoughts we sat together, talking of the past and present. I alluded to the coldness of her letters, but the few minutes we had spent together sufficiently explained the origin of this. New feelings had arisen within her, which she was unable to express in writing to one whom she had only known in childhood, but we saw each other again, and our intimacy was renewed as if nothing had intervened to check it. I detailed the incidents of my sojourn abroad, and then questioned her as to the changes that had taken place at home, the causes of Adrian's absence, and her secluded life.

Starting point is 01:33:25 The tears that suffused my sister's eyes when I mentioned our friend, and her heightened color seemed to vouch for the truth of the reports that had reached me. But their import was too terrible for me to give instant credit to my suspicion. Was there indeed anarchy in the sublime universe of Adrian's thoughts? Did madness scatter the well-appointed legions, and was he no longer the lord of his own soul? Beloved friend, this ill world was no climb for your gentle spirit. You delivered up its governance to false humanity, which stripped it of its leaves ere wintertime, and laid bare its quivering life to the evil ministration of roughest winds. Have those gentle eyes, those channels of the soul, lost their meaning? Or do they only in their glare disclose the horrible tale of

Starting point is 01:34:08 its aberrations. Does that voice no longer, discourse, excellent music? Horrible, most horrible, I veil my eyes and terror of the change, and gushing tears bear witness to my sympathy for this unimaginable ruin. In obedience to my request, Perdita detailed the melancholy circumstances that led to this event. The frank and unsuspicious mind of Adrian, gifted as it was by every natural grace, endowed with transcendent powers of intellect, unblemished by the shadow of defect, unless his dreadless independence of thought was to be construed into one, was devoted even as a victim to sacrifice to his love for Evadne. He entrusted to her keeping the treasures of his soul, his aspirations after excellence, and his plans for the improvement of mankind.

Starting point is 01:34:56 As manhood dawned upon him, his schemes and theories, far from being changed by personal and prudential motives, acquired new strength from the powers he felt to rise within him, and his love for Evadne became deep-rooted, as he each day became more certain that the path he pursued was full of difficulty and that he must seek his reward, not in the applause or gratitude of his fellow creatures, hardly in the success of his plans, but in the approbation of his own heart, and in her love and sympathy, which was to lighten every toil and recompense every sacrifice. In solitude and through many wanderings afar from the haunts of men, he matured his views for the reform of the English government and the improvement of the people.

Starting point is 01:35:38 It would have been well if he had concealed his sentiments until he had come into possession of the power which would secure their practical development. But he was impatient of the years that must intervene. He was frank of heart and fearless. He gave not only a brief denial to his mother's schemes, but published his intention of using his influence to diminish the power of the aristocracy, to affect a greater equalization of wealth and privilege, and to introduce a perfect system of Republican government into England. At first his mother treated his theories as the wild ravings of inexperience, but they were so systematically arranged and his argument so well supported that though still in appearance incredulous she began to fear him.

Starting point is 01:36:19 She tried to reason with him, and finding him inflexible, learned to hate him. Strange to say this feeling was infectious, his enthusiasm for good which did not exist, his contempt for the sacredness of authority, his arger and imprudence, were all at the antipodes of the usual routine of life. The worldly feared him. The young in an experience did not understand the lofty severity of his moral views, and disliked him as a being different from themselves. Evadne entered but coldly into his systems. She thought he did well to assert his own will, but she wished

Starting point is 01:36:54 that will to have been more intelligible to the multitude. She had none of the spirit of a martyr, and did not incline to share the shame and defeat of a fallen patriot. She was aware of the purity of his motives, the generosity of his disposition, his true and ardent attachment to her, and she entertained a great affection for him. He repaid this spirit of kindness with the fondest gratitude, and made her the treasure-house of all his hopes. At this time, Lord Raymond returned from Greece. No two persons could be more opposite than Adrian and he. With all the incongruities of his character, Raymond was emphatically a man of the world. His passions were violent, as these often obtained the mastery over him, he could not always square his conduct to the obvious line of self-interest,

Starting point is 01:37:39 but self-gratification, at least, was the paramount object with him. He looked on the structure of society as but a part of the machinery which supported the web on which his life was traced. The earth was spread out as a highway for him, the heavens built up as a canopy for him. Adrian felt that he made a part of a great hole. He owned affinity not only with mankind, but all nature was akin to him. The mountains, and sky were his friends, the winds of heaven and the offspring of earth, his playmates, while he the focus only of this mighty mirror felt his life mingle with the universe of existence. His soul was sympathy, and dedicated to the worship of beauty and excellence.

Starting point is 01:38:20 Adrian and Raymond now came into contact, and a spirit of aversion rose between them. Adrian despised the narrow views of the politician, and Raymond held in supreme contempt the benevolent visions of the philanthropist. With the coming of Raymond was formed the storm that laid waste at one fell blow, the gardens of delight, and sheltered paths, which Adrian fancied that he had secured to himself as a refuge from defeat and contumely. Raymond, the deliverer of Greece, the graceful soldier, who bore in his mean a tinge of all that, peculiar to her native clime, Evadne cherished as most dear, Raymond was loved by Evadne.

Starting point is 01:38:59 Overpowered by her new sensations, she did not pause to examine. them, or to regulate her conduct by any sentiments except the tyrannical one which suddenly usurp the empire of her heart. She yielded to its influence, and the two natural consequence in a mind unattuned to soft emotions was that the attentions of Adrian became distasteful to her. She grew capricious, her gentle conduct towards him was exchanged for asperity and repulsive coldness. When she perceived the wild or pathetic appeal of his expressive countenance, she would relent, and for a while resume her ancient kindness. But these fluctuations shook to its depths, the soul of the sensitive youth.

Starting point is 01:39:40 He no longer deemed the world subject to him because he possessed Evadne's love. He felt in every nerve that the dire storms of the mental universe were about to attack his fragile being, which quivered at the expectation of its advent. Perdita, who then resided with Evadne, saw the torture that Adrian endured. She loved him as a kind elder brother, a relation to his. guide, protect, and instruct her without the too frequent tyranny of parental authority. She adored his virtues, and with mixed contempt and indignation, she saw Evadne piled dear sorrow on his head, for the sake of one who hardly marked her.

Starting point is 01:40:17 In his solitary despair, Adrian would often seek my sister, and in covered terms express his misery, while fortitude and agony divided the throne of his mind. Soon, alas, was one to conquer. Anger made no part of his emotion. With whom should he angry, not with Raymond, who was unconscious of the misery he occasioned. Not with Avadne, for her his soul wept tears of blood, poor, mistaken girl, slave, not tyrant was she, and amidst his own anguish he grieved for her future destiny. Once a writing of his fell into Perdita's hand, it was blotted with tears. Well might any blot it with the light. Life, it began thus, is not the thing romance writers describe it, going through the measures of a dance,

Starting point is 01:41:01 and after various evolutions arriving at a conclusion, when the dancers may sit down and repose. While there is life, there is action and change. We go on, each thought linked to the one which was its parent, each act to a previous act. No joy or sorrow dies barren of progeny, which forever generated and generating leaves the chain that makes our life. Andea yama a gortodia, Ia Siyama, Iankana, yantau a yantau, Ipanita, yana, yana, yana, anda yanta, yana, Apena. Truly, disappointment is the guardian deity of human life. She sits at the threshold of unborn time, and marshals the events as they come forth. Once my heart sat lightly in my bosom, all the beauty of the world was doubly beautiful, irradiated by the sunlight shed from my own soul,

Starting point is 01:41:50 wherefore our love and ruin forever joined in this our mortal dream. So that when we make our hearts all air for that gently seeming beast, its companion enters with it, and pitiless lays waste, what might have been a home and a shelter. By degrees, his health was shaken by his misery, and then his intellect yielded to the same tyranny. His manners grew wild. He was sometimes ferocious, sometimes absorbed in speechless melancholy. Suddenly Evadne quitted London for Paris.

Starting point is 01:42:18 He followed, and overtook her when the vessel was about to sail. None knew what passed between them, but Perdida had never seen him since. He lived in seclusion. No one knew where, attended by such persons as his mother. mother selected for that purpose. End of Volume 1, Chapter 3. Volume 1, Chapter 4, of The Last Man.

Starting point is 01:42:46 This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Lizzie Driver. The Last Man, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Volume 1. Chapter 4

Starting point is 01:43:07 The next day Lord Raymond called at Padeta's Cottage, on his way to Windsor Castle. My sister's heightened colour and sparkling eyes half revealed her secret to me. He was perfectly self-possessed. He accosted us both with courtesy, seemed immediately to enter into our feelings, and to make one with us.

Starting point is 01:43:32 I scanned his physiognomy, which varied as he spoke. yet was beautiful in every change. The usual expression of his eyes was soft, though at times he could make them even glare with ferocity. His complexion was colourless, and every trait spoke predominant self-will. His smile was pleasing,

Starting point is 01:43:55 though disdain too often curled his lips, lips, which, to female eyes, were the very throne of beauty and love. His voice, usually jenny, gentle, often startled you by a sharp, discordant note, which shewed that his unusual low tone was rather the work of study than nature. Thus full of contradictions, unbending yet haughty, gentle yet fierce, tender and again neglectful, he, by some strange art found easy entrance to the admiration and affection of women. Now caressing and now tyrannizing over them,

Starting point is 01:44:34 according to his mood, but in every change a despot. At the present time, Raymond evidently wished to appear amiable. Witt, hilarity, and deep observation were mingled in his talk, rendering every sentence that he uttered as a flash of light. He soon conquered my latent distaste. I endeavored to watch him and Padita, and to keep in mind everything I had learned to his disadvantage. but all appeared so ingenious and all was so fascinating that i soon forgot everything except the pleasure his society afforded me under the idea of initiating me in the scene of english politics and society of which i was soon to become a part

Starting point is 01:45:23 he narrated a number of anecdotes and sketched many characters his discourse rich and varied flowed on providing all my senses with pleasure but for one thing he would have been completely triumphant he alluded to adrian and spoke of him with that disparagement that the worldly wise always attached to enthusiasm he perceived the cloud gathering and tried to dissipate it but the strength of my feelings would not permit me to pass thus lightly over this sacred subject so i said emphatically permit me to remark that i am devout "'toately attached to the Earl of Windsor, "'he is my best friend and benefactor. "'I reverence his goodness, "'I accord with his opinions, "'and bitterly lament his present,

Starting point is 01:46:15 "'and I trust temporary illness. "'That illness, from its peculiarity, "'makes it painful to me beyond words "'to hear him mentioned, "'unless in terms of respect and affection.' "'Raymond replied, "'but there was nothing conciliatory in his reply. "'I saw,

Starting point is 01:46:34 that in his heart he despised those dedicated to any but worldly idols. Every man, he said, dreams about something, love, honour and pleasure. You dream of friendship, and devote yourself to a maniac. Well, if that be your vocation, doubtless you're in the right to follow it. Some reflections seem to sting him, and the spasm of pain that, for a moment convulsed his countenance, checked my indignation. Happy you. Happy. You know, he seemed to sting him. And the spasm of pain that, for a moment, convulsed his countenance, checked my indignation. Happy dreamers, he continued, so that they be not awakened. Would I could dream, but, broad and garish day is the element in which I live.

Starting point is 01:47:18 The dazzling glare of reality inverts the scene for me. Even the ghost of friendship has departed, and love. He broke off, nor could I guess whether the disdain that curled his lip was directed against the passion, or against himself for being at slave. This account may be taken as a sample of my intercourse with Lord Raymond. I became intimate with him, and each day afforded me occasion to admire more and more his powerful and versatile talents. That, together with his eloquence, which was graceful and witty, and his wealth now immense,

Starting point is 01:47:57 caused him to be feared, loved, and hated beyond any other man in England. my descent which claimed interest if not respect my former connection with adrian the favour of the ambassador whose secretary i had been and now my intimacy with lord raymond gave me easy access to the fashionable and political circles of england to my inexperience we at first appeared on the eve of a civil war each party was violent acrimonious and unyielding Parliament was divided by three factions, aristocrats, Democrats, and Royalists. After Adrian's declared predilection to the Republican form of government, the latter party had nearly died away, chiefless, guideless, but when Lord Raymond came forward as its leader, it revived with redoubled force. Some were royalists from prejudice and ancient affection, and there were many moderately

Starting point is 01:49:04 inclined who feared alike the capricious tyranny of the popular party and the unbending despotism of the aristocrats. More than a third of the members ranged themselves under Raymond, and their number was perpetually increasing. The aristocrats built their hopes on their preponderant wealth and influence. The reform was on the force of the nation itself. The debates were violent. More violent the discourse is held by each knot of politicians. as they assembled to arrange their measures. Approbrious epithets were banded about. Resistance even to the death threatened.

Starting point is 01:49:47 Meetings of the populace disturbed the quiet order of the country. Except in war, how could all this end? Even as the destructive flames were ready to break forth, I saw them shrink back, allayed by the absence of the military, by the aversion entertained by everyone to any violence. save that of speech, and by the cordial politeness and even friendship of the hostile leaders when they met in private society. I was from a thousand motives induced to attend minutely to the course of events, and watch each term with intense anxiety. I could not but perceive that

Starting point is 01:50:28 Baudita loved Raymond. Me thought also that he regarded the fair daughter of Verney, with admiration and tenderness. Yet I knew that he was urging forward his marriage, with the presumptive heiress of the earldom of Windsor, with keen expectation of the advantages that would then secrue to him. All the ex-Queen's friends were his friends. No week past that he did not hold consultations with her at Windsor. I had never seen the sister of Adrian. I had heard that she was lovely, amiable and fascinating. wherefore should i see her there are times when we have an indefinable sentiment of impeding change for better or for worse to arise from an event and be it for better or for worse we fear the change and shun the event for this reason i avoided this high-born damsel to me she was everything and nothing her very name mentioned by another made me start and tremble the endless

Starting point is 01:51:34 The endless discussion concerning her union with Lord Raymond was real agony to me. Me thought that, Adrian withdrawn from active life, and this beauteous Idris, a victim probably, to her mother's ambitious schemes, I ought to come forward to protect her from undue influence, guard her from unhappiness, and secure to her freedom of choice, the right of every human being. Yet, how was I to do this? She herself would disdain my interference. Since then I must be an object of indifference, or contempt to her. Better, far better, avoid her, nor expose myself before her,

Starting point is 01:52:19 and the scornful world to the chance of playing the mad game of a fond, foolish Icarus. One day, several months after my return to England, I quitted London to visit my sister. Her society was my chief solace and delight, and my spirits always rose at the expectation of seeing her. Her conversation was full of pointed remark and discernment. In her pleasant alcove redolent with sweetest flowers, adorned by magnificent casts,

Starting point is 01:52:52 antique vases, and copies of the finest pictures of Raphael, Correggio and Claude. painted by herself i fancied myself in a fairy retreat untainted by and inaccessible to the noisy contentions of politicians and the frivolous pursuits of fashion on this occasion my sister was not alone nor could i fail to recognize her companion it was adress till now unseen object of my mad adultery in what fitting terms of wonder and delight in what choice express and soft flow of language, can I usher in the loveliest, wisest best. How, in poor assemblage of words,

Starting point is 01:53:40 convey the halo of glory that surrounded her, the thousand graces that waited unwearied on her. The first thing that struck you on beholding that charming countenance was its perfect goodness and frankness. Candor sat upon her brow, simplicity in her eyes, "'Heavenly benignity in her smile. "'Her tall, slim figure bent gracefully

Starting point is 01:54:06 "'as a poplar to the breezy west, "'and her gate, goddess-like, "'was as that of a winged angel, "'new a lit from heaven's high floor. "'The pearly fairness of her complexion "'was stained by a pure suffusion. "'Her voice resembled the low, "'subdued tenor of a flute.

Starting point is 01:54:26 "'It is easiest, perhaps, to describe by contrast. I have detailed the perfections of my sister, and yet she was utterly unlike Idris. Perdita, even where she loved, was reserved and timid. Idris was frank and confiding. The one recoiled to solitude that she might there entreat herself from disappointment and injury. The other walked forth in open day, believing that none would harm her. Wordsworth has compared a beloved female to two fair objects in nature, but his lines always appeared to me rather a contrast than a similitude. A violet by a mossy stone, half hidden from the eye,

Starting point is 01:55:18 fair as a star when only one, is shining in the sky. Such a violet was sweet Pardita, trembling to entrust herself to the very air, cowering from observation, yet betrayed by her. excellences, and replying with a thousand graces the labour of those who sought her in her lonely by-path. Idress was as the star, set in single splendour, in the dim anodym of balmy evening, ready to enlighten and delight the subject world, shielded herself from every taint by her unimagined distance from all that was not like herself akin to heaven.

Starting point is 01:56:02 i found this vision of beauty in pedita's alcove in earnest conversation with his inmate when my sister saw me she rose and taken my hand said he is here even at our wish this is lionel my brother i dress arose also and bent on me her eyes of celestial blue and with grace peculiar said you hardly need an introduction we have a picture highly valued by my father which declares at once your name verney you will acknowledge this tie and as my brother's friend i feel that i may trust you then with lids hummed with a tear and trembling voice she continued dear friends do not think it strange that now visiting you for the first time i ask your assistance and confide my wishes and fears to you to you alone do i dare speak i have heard you commended by impartial spectators you are my brother's friends therefore you must be mine what can i say if you refuse to aid me i am lost indeed she cast up her eyes while wonder held her auditor's mute then as if carried away by her feelings she cried my brother beloved ill-fated adrian how speak of your misfortunes doubtless you have both heard the current tale perhaps believe the slander but he is not mad where an angel from the foot of god's throne to assert it never never would i believe it he is wronged betrayed imprisoned save him verney you must do this seek him out in whatever part of the island he is immured find him rescue him from his persecutors

Starting point is 01:57:59 restore him to himself to me on the wide earth i have none to love but only him her earnest appeal so sweetly and passionately expressed filled me with one durand sympathy and when she added with thrilling voice and look do you consent to undertake this enterprise i vowed with energy and truth to devote myself in life and death to the restoration and welfare of adrian we then conversed on the plan i should peruse and discussed the probable means of discovering his residence while we were in earnest discourse lord raymond entered unannounced i saw pedita tremble and grow deathly pale and the cheeks of idris glow with purest blushes he must have been astonished at our conclave disturbed by it i should have thought but nothing of this appeared he saluted my companions and addressed me with cordial greeting idras appeared suspended for a moment and then with extreme sweetness she said lord raymond I confide in your goodness and honour. Smarling haughtily, he bent his head, and replied with emphasis, Do you indeed confide, Lady Idris?

Starting point is 01:59:29 She endeavoured to read his thought, and then answered with dignity. As you please, it is certainly best not to compromise oneself by any concealment. Pardon me, he replied, if I have offended. Whether you trust me or not, rely on my duty. my utmost to further your wishes, whatever they may be. I had just smiled her thanks, and rose to take leave. Lord Raymond requested permission to accompany her to Windsor Castle, to which she consented, and they quitted the cottage together.

Starting point is 02:00:06 My sister and I were left, truly like two fools, who fancied that they had obtained a golden treasure, till daylight shewed it to be led. Two silly, luckless flies. who had played in sunbeams and were caught in a spider's web. I leaned against the casement, and watched those two glorious creatures till they disappeared in the forest glades.

Starting point is 02:00:32 And then I turned. Padita had not moved, her eyes fixed on the ground, her cheeks pale, her very lips white, motionless and rigid. Every feature stamped by woe, she sat. Half frightened I would have taken, her hand, but she shudderingly withdrew it and strove to collect herself. I entreated her to speak to me.

Starting point is 02:00:59 Not now, she replied, nor do you speak to me, my dear Lionel. You can say nothing, for you know nothing. I will see you tomorrow. In the meantime adieu. She rose and walked from the room, but, pausing at the door and leaning against it, as if her over-busy thoughts had taken. taken from her the power of supporting herself, she said, Lord Raymond will probably return. Will you tell him that, he must excuse me today, for I am not well. I will see him tomorrow, if he wishes it, and you also. You had better return to London with him.

Starting point is 02:01:40 You can there make the inquiries agreed upon, concerning the Earl of Windsor, and visit me again tomorrow, before you proceed on your journey. till then farewell. She spoke falteringly, and concluded with a heavy sigh. I gave my assent to her request, and she left me. I felt as if, from the order of the systematic world, I had plunged into chaos, obscure, contrary, unintelligible,

Starting point is 02:02:11 that Raymond should marry Idris was more than ever intolerable. Yet my passion, though a giant from its birth, was too strange wild and impracticable for me to feel at once the misery i perceived in pedita how should i act she had no confidence in me i could not demand an explanation from raymond without the hazard of betraying what was perhaps her most treasured secret i would obtain the truth from her the following day in the meantime but while i was occupied by multiplying reflections Lord Raymond returned. He asked my sister, and I delivered her message. After musing on it for a moment, he asked me if I were about to return to London,

Starting point is 02:03:05 and if I would accompany him. I consented. He was full of thought, and remained silent during a considerable part of our ride. At length he said, I must apologise to you for my abstraction. The truth is, Ryland's motion comes on tonight, and I am considering my reply.

Starting point is 02:03:28 Ryland was the leader of the Popular Party, a hard-headed man, and in his way eloquent. He had obtained leave, to bring in a bill making it treason, to endeavour to change the present state of the English government, and the standing laws of the Republic. This attack was directed against Raymond, and his machinations for the restoration of the monarchy. Raymond asked me if I would accompany him to the house that evening. I remembered my pursuit for intelligence concerning Adrian, and, knowing that my time would be fully occupied, I excused myself. Nay, said my companion, I can free you from your present impediment.

Starting point is 02:04:14 You are going to make inquiries concerning the Earl of Windsor. I can answer them at once. He is at the Duke of Athol's seat at Dunk Hill. on the first approach of his disorder he travelled about from one place to another until arriving at that romantic seclusion he refused to quit it and we made arrangements with the duke for his continuing there i was hurt by the careless tone with which he conveyed this information and replied coldly i am obliged to you for your intelligence and will avail myself of it you shall verney said he and if you continue of the same mind, I will facilitate your views. But first witness I beseech you, the result of this night's contest, and the triumph I am about to achieve, if I may so call it,

Starting point is 02:05:07 while I fear that victory is to me defeat. What can I do? My dearest hopes appear to be near their fulfilment. The ex-queen gives me idress. Adrian is totally unfitted to succeed to the earldom. and that earldom in my hands becomes a kingdom by the reigning god it is true the paltry earldom of windsor shall no longer content him who will inherit the rights which must for ever have attained to the person who possesses it the countess can never forget that she has been a queen and she disdains to leave a diminished inheritance to her children her power and my wit will rebuild the throne and this brow will be classed by a kingly diadem i can do this i can marry idris he stopped abruptly his countenance darkened and its expression changed again and again under the influence of internal passion

Starting point is 02:06:08 i asked does the lady idris love you what a question replied he laughing she will of course as i shall her when we are married you begin late said I, ironically. Marriage is usually considered the grave, and not the cradle of love. So you're about to love her, but do not already? Do not chastise me, Lionel. I will do my duty by her, be assured. Love.

Starting point is 02:06:39 I must steal my heart against that. Expell it from its tower of strength. Barricade it out. The fountain of love must cease to play. Its waters be dried up, and all passionate thoughts attendant on it die. that is to say, the love which would rule me, not that which I rule. Idris is a gentle, pretty, sweet girl.

Starting point is 02:07:01 It is impossible not to have an affection for her, and I have a very sincere one. Only do not speak of love. Love the tyrant and the tyrant queller. Love, until now my conqueror, now my slave, the hungry fire, the untamable beast, the fanged snake. No, no, I will have nothing. to do with that love. Tell me, Lionel, do you consent that I should marry this young lady? He bent his keen eyes upon me, and my uncontrollable heart swelled in my bosom.

Starting point is 02:07:36 I replied in a calm voice, but how far from calm was the thought imagined by my still words? Never. I can never consent that Lady Idris should be united to one who does not love her, "'because you love her yourself. "'Your lordship might have spared that taunt. "'I do not, dare not love her. "'At least,' he continued haughtily, "'she does not love you. "'I would not marry reigning sovereign,

Starting point is 02:08:07 "'where I are not sure that her heart was free. "'But, O Lionel, "'a kingdom is a word of might, "'and gently sounding are the terms "'that compose the style of royalty. "'We're not the mightiest men "'of the olden times king? Alexander was a king.

Starting point is 02:08:24 Solomon, the wisest of men, was a king. Napoleon was a king. Caesar died in his attempt to become one, and Cromwell, the Puritan and king-killer, aspired to regality. The father of Adrian yielded up the already broken scepter of England, but I will rear the fallen plant, join in its dismembered frame,

Starting point is 02:08:45 and exalted above all the flowers at the field. You need not wonder that I freely discover Adrian's abode. Do not suppose that I am wicked or foolish enough to found my proposed sovereignty on a fraud, and one so easily discovered as the truth or falsehood of the Earl's insanity. I am just to come from him. Before I decided on my marriage with Idris, I resolved to see him myself again, and to judge of the probability of his recovery. He is irrecoverably mad. I gasped for breath. I will look detailed to him. you continued raymond the melancholy particulars you shall see him and judge for yourself although i fear this visit useless to him will be insufferably painful to yourself it has weighed on my spirits ever since

Starting point is 02:09:39 excellent and gentle as he is even in the downfall of his reason i do not worship him as you do but i would give all my hopes of a crown and my right hand to boot to see him restored to himself his own voice expressed the deepest compassion. Thou most unaccountable being, I cried, Whither will thy actions tend in all this maze of purpose in which thou seemest lost? Whither, indeed, to a crown, a golden be-gemmed crown, I hope, and yet I dare not trust, and though I dream of a crown and wait for one, ever and anon a busy devil whispers to me, that it is but a fool's cap that I seek, and that, where I wise, I should tramperer, on it, and take in its stead that which is worth all the crowns of the East and presidenhips of the West. And what is that? If I do make it my choice, then you shall know.

Starting point is 02:10:39 At present I dare not speak, even think of it. Again he was silent, and after a pause turned to me laughingly. When scorn did not inspire his mirth, when it was genuine gaiety that painted his features with a joyous expression. His beauty became supereminent, divine. Verony, said he, my first act when I become king of England will be to unite with the Greeks, take Constantinople, and subdue all leisure. I intend to be a warrior, a conqueror. Napoleon's name shall veil to mine, and enthusiasts, instead of visiting his rocky grave, and exulting the merits of the fallen, shall adore, my majesty and magnify my illustrious achievements.

Starting point is 02:11:29 I listened to Raymond with intense interest. Could I be other than all ear, to one who seemed to govern the whole earth in his grasping imagination, and who only quailed when he attempted to rule himself? Then on his word and will depended on my own happiness, the fate of all dear to me. I endeavoured to divine the concealed meaning of his words. Perdita's name was not mentioned, yet I could not doubt that love for her caused the

Starting point is 02:11:59 vacillation of purpose that he exhibited. And who was so worthy of love as my noble-minded sister? Who deserved the hand of this self-exalted king, more than she, whose glance belonged to a queen of nations? Who loved him as he did her? Notwithstanding that disappointment quelled her passion, and ambition held strong combat with his. We went together to the house in the evening. Raymond, while he knew that his plans and prospects were to be discussed and decided during the expected debate, was gay and careless. A hum, like that of ten thousand hives of swarming bees,

Starting point is 02:12:45 stunned us as we entered the coffee-room. Notts of politicians were assembled with anxious brows and loud or deep voices. The aristocratic party, the richest and most influential men in England, appeared less agitated than the others, for the question was to be discussed without their interference. Near the fire was Riland and his supporters. Ryland was a man of obscure birth and of immense wealth, inherited from his father who had been a manufacturer.

Starting point is 02:13:20 He had witnessed, when a young man, the abdication of the king and the amalgamation of the two houses of lords and commons he had sympathised with these popular encroachments and it had been the business of his life to consolidate and increase them since then the influence of the landed proprietors had augmented and at first riland was not sorry to observe the machinations of lord raymond which drew off many of his opponents partisans but the thing was now going too far. The poor inability hailed the return of sovereignty, as an event which would restore them to their power and rights now lost. The half-extinct spirit of royalty roused itself in the minds of men, and they, willing slaves, self-constituted subjects,

Starting point is 02:14:15 were ready to bend their necks to the oak. Some erect and manly spirit still rome. remained, pillars of state, but the word Republic had grown stale to the vulgar ear, and many, the event would prove whether it was a majority, pined for the tinsel and show of royalty. Ryland was roused to resistance. He asserted that his sufferance alone had permitted the increase of this party, but the time for indulgence was passed, and, with one motion of his arm, he would sweep away the cobwebs had blinded his countrymen. When Raymond entered the coffee-room, his presence was hailed by his friends, almost with a shout. They gathered round him, counted their numbers, and detailed the

Starting point is 02:15:05 reasons why they were now to receive an addition of such and such members, who had not yet declared themselves. Some trifling business of the house, having been gone through, the leaders took their seats in the chamber. The clamour of voices continued, till Rilandarer rose to speak, and then the slightest whispered observation was audible all eyes were fixed upon him as he stood ponderous of frame sonorous of voice and with a manner which though not graceful was impressive i turned from his marked iron countenance to raymond whose face failed by a smile would not betray his care yet his lips quivered somewhat and his hand clasped the bench on which he sat with a convulsed strength that made the muscle start again riland began by praising the present state of the british empire he recalled past years to their memory the miserable contentions which in the time of our fathers arose almost to civil war the abdication of the late king and the foundation of the republic he described this republic shewed how it gave privilege to each individual in the state to rise to consequence and even to temporary sovereignty he compared to the royal and republican spirit showed how one tended to enslave the minds of men while all the institutions of the other served to raise even the meanest among us to something great and good

Starting point is 02:16:44 he shewed how england had become powerful and its inhabitants valiant and wise by means of the freedom they enjoyed as he spoke every heart swelled with pride and every cheek glowed with delight to remember that each one there was english and that each supported and contributed to the happy state of things now commemorated rilin's fervour increased his eyes lighted up his voice assumed the tone of passion there was one man he continued who wished to alter all this and bring us back to our days of impotence and contention one man who had dare arrogate the honour which was due to all who claimed england as their birthplace and set his name and style above the name and style of his country i saw it this juncture that raymond changed colour his eyes were withdrawn from the orator and cast on the ground the listener's tale of his listeners told him that raymond changed colour his eyes were withdrawn from the orator and cast on the ground The listeners turned from one to the other, but in the meantime the speaker's voice filled their ears. The thunder of his denunciations influenced their senses. The very boldness of his language gave him weight. Each knew that he spoke truth, a truth known but not acknowledged. He tore from reality the mask with which she had been clothed, and the purposes of Raymond, which before had crept around, ensnaring by stealth,

Starting point is 02:18:18 now stood a hunted stag, even at bay, as all perceived who watched the irrepressible changes of his countenance. Ryland ended by moving that any attempt to re-erect the kingly power should be declared treason, and he a traitor who should endeavour to change the present form of government. Cheers and loud acclamations followed the close of his speech. After his motion had been seconded, Lord Raymond rose, his countenance bland, his voice softly melodous, his manner soothing, his grace and sweetness coming, like the mild breathing of a flute, after the loud, organ-like voice of his adversary.

Starting point is 02:19:06 He rose, he said, to speak in favour of the Honourable Wals, member's motion, and one slight amendment subjoined. He was ready to go back to old times, and commemorate the contest of our fathers and the monarch's abdication. Nobly and greatly, he said, had the illustrious and last sovereign of England sacrificed himself to the apparent good of his country, and divested himself of a power which could only be maintained by the blood of his subjects. These subjects named So No More, these, his friends and equal, had ingratitude conferred certain favours and distinctions on him and his family forever. An ample estate was allotted to them, and they took the first rank among the peers of Great Britain.

Starting point is 02:19:58 Yet it might be conjectured that they had not forgotten their ancient heritage, and it was hard that his heir should suffer alike with any other pretender, if he attempted to regain what by ancient right and inheritance belonged to him he did not say that he should favor such an attempt but he did say that such an attempt would be venial and if the aspirant did not go so far as to declare war and direct a standard in the kingdom his fault ought to be regarded with an indulgent eye in his amendment he proposed that an exception should be made in the bill in favor of any person who claimed the sovereign power in right of the earls of windsor nor did raymond make an end without drawing in vivid and glowing colors the splendor of a kingdom in opposition to the commercial spirit of republicanism he asserted that each individual under the english monarchy was then as now capable of attaining high rank and power with only one exception that of the function of chief magistrate higher and nobler rank than a bartering timorous commonwealth could afford and for this one exception to what did it amount the nature of riches and influence forcibly confined the list of candidates to a few of the wealthiest and it was much to be feared that the ill-humour and contention generated by this triennial struggle would counterbalance its advantages in impartial eyes i can ill record the flow of language and graceful turns of expression the wit and easily rilery that gave vigor and influence to his speech

Starting point is 02:21:46 his manner timid at first became firm his changeful face was lit up to superhuman brilliancy his voice various as music was like that enchanting it were useless to record the debate that followed this harangue party speeches were delivered which clothed the question in kent and veiled its simple meaning in a woven wind of words the motion was lost rayland withdrew in rage and despair and raymond gay and exulting retired to dream of his future kingdom end of chapter four volume one volume one chapter four a of the last man this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot org recording by lizzie driver the last man by mary walston craft shelley volume one chapter four a is there such a feeling as love at first sight and if there be in what does its nature differ from love founded in long observation and slow growth perhaps its effects are not so permanent but they are while they last as violent and intense we walk the pathless mazes of society vacant of joy till we hold this clue leading us through that labyrinth to paradise our nature dim like to an unlighted torch sleeps in formless blank till the fire attain it this life of life this light to moon and glory to the sun what does it matter whether the fire be struck from flint and steel nourished with care into a flame slowly communicated to the dark wick or whether swiftly the radiant power of light and warmth passes from a kindred power and shines at once the beacon and the hope

Starting point is 02:24:00 in the deepest fountain of my heart the pulses were stirred around above beneath the clinging memory as a cloak unwrapped me in no one moment of coming time did i feel as i had done in time gone by the spirit of idris hovered in the air i breathed her eyes were ever and forever bent on mine her remembered smile blinded my faint gaze and caused me to walk as one not an eclipse not in darkness and vacancy, but in a new and brilliant light, too novel, too dazzling from my human senses. On every leaf, on every small division of the universe, as on the higher synth it is engraved, was imprinted the talisman of my existence.

Starting point is 02:24:50 She lives, she is! I had not time yet to analyse my feeling, to take myself to task, and leash in the tentations. Hameless passion. All was one idea, one feeling, one knowledge. It was my life. But the die was cast. Raymond would marry Idris. The marriage bells wrung in my ears. I heard the nation's gratulation which followed the Union. The ambitious noble uprose with swift eagle flight, from the lowly ground to regal supremacy, and to the love of Idris. Yet not so,

Starting point is 02:25:30 She did not love him. She had called me her friend. She had smiled on me. To me she had entrusted her heart's dearest hope. The welfare of Adrian. This reflection thawed my congealing blood. And again the tide of life and love flowed impetuously onward. Again to ebb as my busy thoughts changed. The debate had ended at three in the morning. My soul was in tumults. I traversed the street of with eager rapidity. Truly I was mad that night. Love, which I have named a giant from its birth, wrestled with despair. My heart, the field of combat, was wounded by the iron heel of the one, watered by the gush of tears of the other.

Starting point is 02:26:18 Day, hateful to me, dawned. I retreated to my lodgings. I threw myself on a couch. I slept. Was it sleep? For thought was still alive. Love and despair struggled still, and I arrived with unendurable pain. I awoke half stupefied. I felt a heavy oppression on me, but knew not whereof.

Starting point is 02:26:43 I entered, as it were, the council chamber of my brain, and questioned the various ministers of thought therein assembled. Too soon I remembered all. Too soon my limbs quivered beneath the tormenting power. Soon, too soon, I knew myself a slave. Suddenly unannounced, Lord Raymond entered my apartment. He came in gaily, singing the Tyrolies Song of Liberty, noticed me with a gracious nod, and threw himself on a sofa opposite the copy of a bust of the Apollo Belvedere. After one or two trivial remarks,

Starting point is 02:27:23 to which I sullenly replied, he suddenly cried, looking at the bust, i am called like that victor not a bad idea the head will serve for my new coinage and be an omen to all dutiful subjects of my future success he said to this in his most gay yet benevolent manner and smiled not disdainfully but in playful mockery of himself then his countenance suddenly darkened and in that shrill tone peculiar to himself he cried I fought a good battle last night. Higher conquest the plains of Greece never saw me achieve. Now I am the first man in the state, Berthin of every ballad,

Starting point is 02:28:07 and object of old women's mumbled devotions. What are your meditations? You, who fancy that you can read the human soul, as your native lake reads each crevice and folding of its surrounding hills. Say what you think of me. King expectant, angel or devil, which? This ironical tone was discord to my bursting over-boiling heart. I was nettled by his insolence, and replied with bitterness.

Starting point is 02:28:36 There is a spirit, neither angel or devil, damned to limbo merely. I saw his cheeks become pale, and his lips whiten and quiver. His anger served between kindle mine, and I answered with a determined look, his eyes which glared on me. Suddenly they were withdrawn, cast. down. A tear, I thought, whetted the dark lashes. I was softened,

Starting point is 02:29:01 and with involuntary emotion, added, Not that you are such, my dear lord. I paused, even awed by the agitation he invents. Yes, he said at length, rising and biting his lip, as he strove to curb his passion. Such am I.

Starting point is 02:29:21 You do not know me, Verney. Neither you, nor our audience of last night, nor does Universal England know ought of me. I stand here, it would seem, an elected king. This hand about to grasp a sceptor. These brows feel on each nerve the coming diadem. I appear to have strength, power, victory, standing as a dome supporting column stands, and I am a reed. I have ambition, and that attains its aim. My knightly dreams are realized. My awake in hopes fulfilled. A kingdom awaits my acceptance. My enemies are overthrown. But here. He struck his heart with violence. Here is the rebel. Here the stumbling lock.

Starting point is 02:30:08 This overruling heart which I may drain of its living blood. But while one fluttering pulsation remains, I am its slave. He spoke with a broken voice, then bowed his head, and hiding his face in his hands wept. I was still smarting from my own disappointment, yet this scene oppressed me even to terror, nor could I interrupt his axes of passion. It subsided at length, and, throwing himself on the couch, he remained silent and motionless, except that his changeful features showed a strong internal conflict. At last he rose, and said in his usual tone of voice, the time grows in Osverney. The time grows "'I must away. "'Let me not forget my chief deserrant here.

Starting point is 02:30:57 "'Will you accompany me to Windsor tomorrow? "'You will not be dishonoured by my society. "'And as this is probably the last service "'or disservice you can do me, "'will you grant my request?' "'He held out his hand with almost a bashful air. "'Swiftly I thought, "'Yes, I will witness the last scene of the drama,

Starting point is 02:31:19 "'bes which his main conquered me, and an affectionate sentiment towards him again filled my heart. I bade him command me. I, that I will, said he gaily. That's my cue now. Be with me to-morrow morning by seven. Be secret and faithful. And you shall be groom of the stowl ere long.

Starting point is 02:31:41 So saying he hastened away, vaulted on his horse, and with a gesture as if he gave me his hand to kiss, bade me another laughing adieu. Left to myself I strove with painful intensity To divine the motion of his request And foresee the events of the coming day The hours passed on unperceived My head ached with thought

Starting point is 02:32:05 The nerves seemed teeming with overful fraught I clasped my burning brow As if my fevered hand could medicine its pain I was punctual to the appointed hour on the following day and found Lord Raymond waiting for me. We got into his carriage and proceeded towards Windsor. I had tutored myself, and was resolved by no outward sign to disclose my internal agitation.

Starting point is 02:32:32 What a mistake Ryland made, said Raymond, when he thought to overpower me the other night. He spoke well, very well. Such an harangue would have succeeded better addressed to me singly, then to the fools and maids assembled yonder. had i been alone i should have listened to him with a wish to hear reason but when he endeavoured to vanquished me in my own territory with my own weapons he put me on my metal and the event was such as all might have expected i smiled incredulously and replied i am of ryland's way of thinking and will if you please repeat all his arguments we shall see how far you'll be induced by them to change the royal for the patriotic style the repetition would be useless said raymond since i will remember them and have many others self-suggested which speak with unanswerable persuasion

Starting point is 02:33:29 he did not explain himself nor did i make any remark on his reply our silence endured for some miles till the country with open fields or shady woods and parks presented pleasant objects to our view after some observations on the scenery and seats raymond said philosophers have called man a microcosm of nature and find a reflection in the internal mind for all this machinery visible its work around us this theory has often been a source of amusement to me and many an idle hour have i spent exercising my ingenuity in finding resemblances does not lord bacon say that the falling from a discord to a concord which maketh great sweetness in music hath an agreement with the affections which are reintegrated to the better after some dislikes what to see is the tide of passion whose fountains are in our own nature our virtues are the quicksands which show themselves at calm and low water but let the waves arise and the winds buffet them and the poor devil whose hope was in their durability finds them sink from under him the fashions of the world its exigencies educations and pursuctions and pursuers are winds to drive our wills, like clouds all on way. But let a thunderstorm arise in the shape of love, hate, or ambition, and the rat goes backward, stemming the opposing air in triumph.

Starting point is 02:35:00 Yes, replied I, Nature always presents to our eyes the appearance of a patient, while there is an active principle in man which is capable of ruling fortune, and at least of tacking against the gale, till it in some mode conquers it. there is more of what is specious than is true in your distinction said my companion did we form ourselves choosing our dispositions and our powers i find myself for one as a stringed instrument with chords and stops but i have no power to turn the pegs or pitch my thoughts to a higher or lower key other men i observed may be better musicians i talk not of others but myself replied raymond and i am as fair an example to go by as another i cannot set my heart to a particular tune or involuntary changes on my will we are born we choose neither our parents nor our station we are educated by others or by the world's circumstance and this cultivation mingling with our own innate disposition is the soil in which our desires passions and motives grow

Starting point is 02:36:14 there is much truth in what you say said i and yet no man ever acts upon this theory who when he makes a choice says thus i choose because i am necessitated does he not on the contrary feel a freedom of will within him which though you may call it fallacious still actuates him as he decides exactly so replied raymond another link of the breakless chain were i now to commit an act which would annihilate my hopes and pluck the regal garment from my mortal limbs to clothe them in ordinary weeds would this think you be an act of free will on my part as we talked thus i perceived that we were not going the ordinary road to windsor but through engelfield green towards bishopgate heath i began to define that adress as not the object of our journey but that i was brought to witness the scene that was to decide the fate of raymond and of course, Padita. Raymond had evidently facilitated during his journey, and his resolution was marked in every gesture as we entered Padita's cottage. I watched him curiously, determined that,

Starting point is 02:37:30 if this hesitation should continue, I would assist Padita to overcome herself, and teacher to disdain the wavering love of him, who balanced between the possession of a crown and of her, whose excellent and affection transcended the worth of a kingdom. We found her in her flower adorned alcove. She was read in the newspaper report of the debate in Parliament, that apparently doomed her to hopelessness.

Starting point is 02:37:58 That heart-sinking feeling was painted in her sunk eyes and spiritless attitude. A cloud was on her beauty, and frequent sighs were tokens of her distress. This sight had an instantaneous, effect on Raymond. His eyes beamed with tenderness, and remorse clothed his manners with earnestness and truth. He sat beside her, and, taken the paper from her hand, said, Not a word more shall my sweet patita read of this contention of madman and fools. I must not permit you to be acquainted with the extent of my delusion, lest you despise me. Although,

Starting point is 02:38:37 believe me, a wish to appear before you, not vanquished, but as a conqueror, inspired me during my wordy war. Padita looked at him like one amazed. Her expressive countenance shone for a moment with tenderness. To see him only was her happiness. But a bitter thought swiftly shadowed her joy. She bent her eyes on the ground, endeavouring to master the passion of tears that threatened to overwhelm her.

Starting point is 02:39:06 Raymond continued, I will not act apart with you, dear girl, or appear other than what I am, weak and unworthy, more fit to excite your disdain than your love. Yet, you do love me. I feel and know that you do, and thence I draw my most cherished hopes. If pride guided you, or even reason, you might well reject me. Do so. If your high heart, incapable of my infirmity of purpose, refuses to bend to the lowness of mine, turn from me, if you will, if you can. If your whole soul does not urge you to forgive me, if your entire heart does not open wide its door to admit me

Starting point is 02:39:48 to its very centre, forsake me, never speak to me again. I, though sinning against you, almost beyond remission, I also am proud. There must be no reserve in your pardon, no drawback to the gift of your affection. Petita looked down, confused yet pleased. My presence embarrassed her, so that she dared not turn to me to her. lover's eyes, or trust her voice to assure him of her affection. While a blush mantled her cheek, and her disconsolent air was exchanged for one expressive of deep-felt joy, Raymond encircled her waist with his arm, and continued, I do not deny that I are balanced between you and the highest hope that mortal man can

Starting point is 02:40:33 entertain, but I do so no longer. Take me, mould me to your will, possess my heart and soul to all eternity. If you refuse to contribute to my happiness, I quit England tonight and will never set foot in it again. Lionel, you hear, witness for me, persuade your sister to forgive the injury I have done her. Persuade her to be mine. There needs be no persuasion, said the blushing Padita, except your own dear promises, and my ready heart, which whispers to me that they are true. That same evening we all three walked together in the forest, and with the garrility which happiness inspires, they detail to me the history of their loves. It was pleasant to see the haughty Raymond and reserved Padita,

Starting point is 02:41:26 changed through happy love into prattling playful children, both losing their characteristic dignity in the fullness of mutual contentment. A night or two ago, Lord Raymond, with a brow of care and a heart oppressed with thought, bent all his energies to silence or persuade to the legislators of England, the deceptor was not too weighty for his hand, while visions of dominion, war, and triumph floated before him.

Starting point is 02:41:55 Now, frolicsome as a lively boy sporting under his mother's approving eye, the hopes of his ambition were complete, when he pressed the small fair hand of Bidita to his lips, while she, radiant with delight, looked on the still pool, not truly admiring herself, but drinking in with rapture the reflection there made of the form of herself and her lover, shown for the first time in dear conjunction. I rambled away from them. If the rapture of assured sympathy was theirs, I enjoyed that of restored hope. I looked on the regal towers of Windsor.

Starting point is 02:42:33 High is the wall and strong the barrier that separate me from my star of beauty, but not impassable. she will not be his a few more years dwell in thy native garden sweet flower till i by toil and time acquire a right to gather thee despair not nor bid me despair what must i do now first i must seek adrian and restore him to her patience gentleness and untired affection shall recall him if it be true as raymond says that he is mad energy and courage shall rescue him if he be unjustly imprisoned after the lovers again joined me we supped together in the alcove truly it was a fairy supper for though the air was perfumed by the scent of fruits and wine we none of us either ate or drank even the beauty of the night was unobserved their ecstasy could not be increased by outward objects and i was wrapped in reverie at about midnight raymond and i took leave of my sister to return to town he was all gaiety scraps of songs fell from his lips every thought of his mind every object about us gleamed under the sunshine of his mirth he accused me of melancholy of ill-humor and envy not so said i though i confess that my thoughts are not occupied as pleasantly as yours are you promised to facilitate my visit to adrian i conjure you to perform your promise i cannot linger here i long to soothe perhaps to cure the malady of my first and best friend i shall immediately depart for dunkeld

Starting point is 02:44:21 thou bird of night replied raymond what an eclipse do you throw across my bright thoughts forcing me to call to mind that melancholy ruin which stands in mental desolation more irreparable than a fragment of a color carved column in a weed-grown field. You dream that you can restore him? Dedalus never wound so inextricable an error around Minotaur, as madness has woven about his imprisoned reason. Nor you, nor any other Theseus can thread to the labyrinth, to which perhaps some unkind Eradne has the clue. You allude to Evodony's eye me, but she is not in England.

Starting point is 02:45:03 And were she, said Raymond, I would not advise her seeing him. better to decay in absolute delirium than to be a victim of the methodical than to be a victim of the methodical unreason of ill-bustowed love the long duration of malady has probably erased from his mind all vestige of her and it will well that it should never again be imprinted you will find him at dunkeld gentle and tractable he wanders up the hills and through the wood or sits listening beside the waterfall you may see him his hair stuck with wild flowers his eyes full of untraceable meaning his voice broken his person wasted to a shadow he plucks flowers and weeds and weeds chaplets of them or sails yellow leaves and bits of bark on the stream rejoicing in their safety always always weeping at their wreck. The very memory half unmanned me. By heaven, the first tears I have shed since boyhood rushed scolding into my eyes when I saw him. It needed not this last account to spur me on to visit him. I only doubted whether or not I should endeavor to see Idris again

Starting point is 02:46:15 before I departed. This doubt was decided on the following day. Early in the morning Raymond came to me. Intelligence had arrived that Adrian was daintrism. ill and it appeared impossible that his failing strength should surmount the disorder to-morrow said raymond his mother and sister set out for scotland to see him once again and i go to-day i cried this very hour i will engage a sailing balloon i shall be there in forty-eight hours at furthest perhaps unless if the wind is fair well raymond be happy in having chosen the better part in life this turn of fortune revives me i feared madness not sickness i have a presentiment that adrian will not die perhaps his illness is a crisis and he may recover everything favoured my journey the balloon rose about half a mile from the earth and with a favourable wind it hurried through the air its feathered vans cleave in the unopposing atmosphere notwithstanding the melancholy object of my journey my spirits were exhilarated by reviving hope by the swift motion of the airy pinnace and the balmy visitation of the sunny air the pilot hardly moved the plumed steerage and the slender mechanism of the wings wide unfurled gave forth a murmuring noise soothing to the sense plain and hill stream and cornfield were discernible below while we unimped on swift and secure

Starting point is 02:47:56 as a wild swan in his spring-tide flight the machine obeyed the slightest motion of the helm and the wind blowing steadily there was no let or obstacle to our course such a was the power of man over the elements a power long sought and lately won yet foretold in bygone time by the prince of poets whose verses i quoted much to the astonishment of my pilot when i told him how many hundreds of years ago they had been written o human wit thou canest invent much ill thou searchest strange art who would think by skill and heavy man like a light bird should stray and through the empty heavens find away. I alighted at Perth, and, though much fatigued by a constant exposure to the air for many hours, I would not rest, but, merely altering my mode of conveyance, I went by land instead of air, to Dunkeld. The sun was rising as I entered the opening of the hills. After the revolution of ages, Burnham Hill was again covered with a young forest, while more aged pines, planted at the very commencement of the 19th century by the then Duke of Athel gave solemnity and beauty to the scene.

Starting point is 02:49:17 The rising sun first tinged the pine-tops, and my mind, rendered through my mountain education deeply susceptible to the graces of nature, and now on the eve of again beholding my beloved and perhaps dying friend, was strangely influenced by the sight of those distant beams. Surely they were ominous, and as such I regarded them, good omens for Adrian, on whose life my happiness depended. Poor fellow, he lay stretched on a bed of sickness, his cheeks glowing with the hues of fever, his eyes half closed, his breath irregular and difficult. Yet it was less painful to see him thus, than to find him fulfilling the animal functions uninterruptedly, his mind sick the while.

Starting point is 02:50:07 I established myself at his bedside. I never quitted it day or night. Bitter task was it, to behold his spirit wavered between death and life, to see his warm cheek, and know that the very fire which burned too fiercely there was consuming the vital fuel, to hear his moaning voice,

Starting point is 02:50:28 which might never again articulate words of love and wisdom. To witness the inner effect, effectual motions of his limbs, soon to be wrapped in their mortal shroud. Such for three days and nights appeared the consummation which fate had decreed for my labours, and I became haggard and spectre-like, through anxiety and watching. At length his eyes unclosed faintly, yet with a look of returning life. He became pale and weak, but the rigidity of his features was softened by approaching convalescence. what a brimful cup of joyful agony it was when his face first gleaned with a glance of recognition when he pressed my hand now more fevered than his own and when he pronounced my name

Starting point is 02:51:18 no trace of his past insanity remained to dash my joy with sorrow this same evening his mother and sister arrived the countess of windsor was by nature full of energetic feeling but she had very seldom in her life permitted the concentrated emotions of her heart to show themselves on her features the studded immovability of her countenance her slow equable manner and soft but unmelodious voice were a mark her fiery passions and the impatience of her disposition. She did not in the least resemble either of her children. Her black and sparkling eye, lit up by pride, was totally unlike the blue luster and frank benignant expression of either Adrian or Adress. There was something grand and majestic in her motions,

Starting point is 02:52:13 but nothing persuasive, nothing amiable. Tall, thin and straight, Her face still handsome, her raven hair hardly tinged with grey, her forehead arched and beautiful, had not the eyebrows been somewhat scattered, it was impossible not to be struck by her, almost to fear her. Adras appeared to be the only being who could resist her mother, notwithstanding the extreme mildness of her character. But there was a fearlessness and frankness about her, which said that she would not enroach on another's liberty. but held her own sacred and unassailable the countess cast no look of kindness on my worn-out frame though afterwards she thanked me coldly for my attentions not so adress her first glance was for a brother she took his hand she kissed his eyelids and hung over him with looks of compassion and love her eyes glistened with tears when she thanked me and the grace of her expression was enhanced not diminished

Starting point is 02:53:18 by the fervour which caused her almost to falter as she spoke her mother all eyes and ears soon interrupted us and i saw that she wished to dismiss us quietly as one whose services now that his relatives had arrived were of no use to her son i was harassed and ill resolved not to give up my post yet doubting in what way i should assert it when adrian called me and clasped in my hand bade me not to leave him his mother, apparently inattentive, at once understood what was meant, and seeing the hold we had upon her, yielded the point to us. The days that followed were full of pain to me, so that I sometimes regretted that I had not yielded at once to the haughty lady, who watched all my motions, and turned my beloved task of nursing my friend to a work of pain and irritation. Never did any woman appear so entirely made of mind as the Countess of Windsor. Her passions had subdued her appetites, even her natural wants. She slept little and hardly ate at all. Her body was evidently considered by her as a mere machine,

Starting point is 02:54:36 whose health was necessary for the accomplishment of her schemes. Bert, whose senses formed no part of her enjoyment. There is something fearful in one who can think, thus conquer the animal part of our nature, if the victory be not the effect of consummate virtue, nor was it without a mixture of this feeling that I beheld the figure of the Countess awake when others slept. Fasting when I, abstemious naturally, and rendered so by the fever that preyed on me, was forced to recruit myself with food, she resolved to prevent or diminish my opportunities of acquiring influence over her children,

Starting point is 02:55:19 and circumvented my plans by a hard, quiet, stubborn resolution that seemed not to belong to flesh and blood. War was at last tacitly acknowledged between us. We had many pitched battles, during which no word was spoken, hardly a look was interchanged, but in which each resolved not to submit to the other. The Countess had the advantage of position,

Starting point is 02:55:45 so i was vanquished though i would not yield after the lapse of a few weeks we left dunkeld adress and her mother returned immediately to while adrian and i followed by slow journeys and frequent stoppages occasioned by his continued weakness as we traversed the various counties of fertile england all wore an exhilarating appearance to my companion who had been so long secluded by disease from the enjoyments of the weather and scenery. We passed through busy towns and cultivated plains. The husband-win were getting in their plenteest harvests, and the women and children, occupied by light rustic toils, formed groups of happy, healthful persons, the very sight of whom carried cheerfulness to the heart. One evening, quitting our inn, we strolled down a shady lane, then up a grassy slope, till we came to an eminence that commanded an extensive view of hill and dale, meandering rivers, dark woods, and shining villages. The sun was setting, and the clouds straying like new-shorn sheep, through the vast

Starting point is 02:56:57 fields of sky, received the golden colour of his parting beams. The distant uplands shone out, and the busy hum of evening came, harmonised by distance, on our ear. Adrian, who felt all the fresh spirit infused by returning health, clasped his hands in delight, and exclaimed with transport. Oh, happy earth and happy inhabitants of earth! A stately palace has God built for you, O man, and worthy are you of your dwelling? Behold the verdant carpets spread at our feet, and the azure canopy above. The fields of earth which generate to nurture all things, and the track of heaven which contains and clasps all things. Now, at this evening hour,

Starting point is 02:57:44 at the period of repose and perfection, may things all hearts breathe one hymn of love and thanksgiving, and we, like priests of old on the mountain-tops, give a voice to their sentiment. Assuredly a most benignant power built up the majestic fabric we inhabit, and framed the laws by which it endures. If mere existence, and not happiness, had been the final end of our being,

Starting point is 02:58:09 what need are the profuse luxuries which we enjoy? Why should our dwelling-place be, so lovely, and why should the instincts of nature minister pleasurable sensations? The very sustaining of our animal machine is made delightful, and our sustenance, the fruits of the field, is painted with transcendent hues, endured with grateful odours, and palatable to our taste. Why should this be, if he were not good? We need houses to protect us from the seasons, and behold the materials with which we are provided, the growth of trees with the trees with their adornment of leaves, while rocks of stone piled about the plains verigate the prospect

Starting point is 02:58:49 with their pleasant irregularity. Nor are the outward objects alone the receptacles of the spirit of good. Look into the mind of men, where wisdom reigns enthroned, where imagination, the painter sits, with its pencil dipped in hues lovelier than those of sunset, adorning familiar life with glowing tints. What a noble boon, worthy the given. is the imagination. It takes from reality its leaden hue. It envelops all thought and sensation in a radiant veil, and with an hand of beauty beckons us from the sterile seas of life to her gardens

Starting point is 02:59:27 and bowers and glades of bliss. It is not love a gift of the divinity, love and her child hope, which can bestow wealth on poverty, strength on the weak, and happiness on the sorrowing. My lot has not been fortunate. I have consorted long with grief, entered the gloomy labyrinth of madness, and emerged, but half alive. Yet I thank God that I have lived. I thank God that I beheld his throne.

Starting point is 02:59:57 The heavens and earth, his footstall. I am glad that I have seen the changes of his day, to behold the sun, fountain of light, and the gentle pilgrim moon, to have seen the fire-bearing flowers of the sky, and to the flowery stars of earth, to have witnessed the sowing and the harvest. I am glad that I have loved,

Starting point is 03:00:18 and have experienced sympathetic joy and sorrow with my fellow creatures. I am glad now to fill the current of thought flow through my mind, as the blood through the articulations of my frame. Mere existence is pleasure, and I thank God that I live. And all ye happy nurslings of Mother Earth, do ye not echo my words? ye who are linked by the affectionate ties of nature, companions, friends, lovers, fathers, who toil with joy for their offspring, women, who, while gazing on the living forms of their children,

Starting point is 03:00:52 forget the pains of maternity, children who neither toil nor spin, but love and are loved. O that death and sickness were banished from our earthly home, that hatred, tyranny, and fear could no longer make their lair in the human heart, that each man might find a brother in his fellow and a nest of repose amid the wide plains of his inheritance that the source of tears were dry and that lips might no longer form expressions of sorrow sleeping thus under the beneficent eye of heaven can evil visit thee o earth or grief cradles to their graves the luckless children whisper it not let the demons hear and rejoice the choice is with us let us will it and our habitation becomes a paradise for the will of man is omnipotent, blunting the arrows of death, soothing the bed of disease, and wiping away the tears of agony. And what is each human being worth,

Starting point is 03:01:50 if he did not put forth his strength to aid his fellow creatures? My soul is a fading spark. My nature of frail is a spent wave, but I dedicate all of intellect and strength that remains to me to that one work, and take upon me the task, as far as I am able, of bestowing blessings on my fellow men. His voice trembled, his eyes were cast up, his hands clasped, and his fragile person was bent, as it were, with excess of emotion.

Starting point is 03:02:22 The spirit of life seemed to linger in his form, as the dying flame and an altar flickers on the embers of an accepted sacrifice. End of Chapter 4A. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Libravox.org. Recorded by Colin McRoberts. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 1, Chapter 5.

Starting point is 03:03:02 When we arrived at Windsor, I found that Raymond and Perdita had departed for the continent. I took possession of my sister's cottage and blessed myself that I lived within view of Windsor Castle. It was a curious fact that, at this period, when by the marriage, of Perdita. I was allied to one of the richest individuals in England, and was bound by the most intimate friendship to its chiefest noble. I experienced the greatest excess of poverty that I had ever known. My knowledge of the worldly principles of Lord Raymond would have ever prevented me from applying to him, however deep my distress might have been. It was in vain that I repeated to myself, with regard to Adrian, that his purse was open to me, that one in soul, as we were, our fortunes

Starting point is 03:03:45 ought also to be common. I could never, while with him, think of his bounty as a remedy to my poverty, and I even put aside hastily the offers of supplies, assuring him of a falsehood that I needed them not. How could I say to this generous being, maintain me in idleness? You who have dedicated your powers of mind and fortune to the benefit of your species. Shall you also misdirect your exertions as to support in uselessness the strong, healthy, and capable, and yet I dared not request him to use his influence that I might obtain an honorable provision for myself. For then, I should have been obliged to leave Windsor.

Starting point is 03:04:25 I hovered forever around the walls of its castle, beneath its enshrowing thickets. My soul companions were my books and my loving thoughts. I studied the wisdom of the ancients and gazed on the happy walls that sheltered the beloved of my soul. My mind was nevertheless idle. I poured over the poetry of old times. I studied the metaphysics of Plato.

Starting point is 03:04:47 And Berkeley. I read the histories of Greece and Rome, and of England's former periods, and I watched the movements of the lady of my heart. At night I could see her shadow on the walls of her apartment. By day, I viewed her in the flower garden, or riding in the park with her usual companions. Me thought the charm would be broken if I were seen,

Starting point is 03:05:05 but I heard the music of her voice and was happy. to each heroine of whom I read her beauty and matchless excellence. Such was Antigone when she guided the blind Oedipus to the grove of the Humanities, and discharged the funeral rites of Polyneses. Such was Miranda in the unvisited cave of Prospero, such Haiti on the sands of the Eonian Island. I was mad with excess, passionate devotion, but pride, tameless as fire, invested my nature, prevented me from betraying myself by word or look. In the meantime, while I thus pampered myself

Starting point is 03:05:42 with rich mental repast, a peasant would have disdained my scanty fare, which I sometimes robbed from the squirrels of the forest. I was, I own, often tempted to recur to the lawless feats of my boyhood, and knock down the almost tame pheasants that perched upon the trees, and bend their bright eyes to me, but they were the property of Adrian, the nurslings of Idris, and I, although though my imagination, rendered sensual by privation, made me think that they would better become the spit in my kitchen than the green leaves of the forest. Nay the less, I checked my haughty will and did not eat, but supped upon the sentiment and dreamt vainly of such morsel's sweet as I might not waking attain.

Starting point is 03:06:26 But at this period, the whole scheme of my existence was about to change. The orphan and neglected son of Verney was on the eve of being linked to, the mechanism of society by a golden chain, and to enter in to all the duties and affections of life. Miracles were to be wrought in my favor. The machine of social life pushed with fast effort backward. Attend, O reader, while I narrate this tale of wonders. One day, as Adrian and Idris were riding through the forest with their mother and accustomed

Starting point is 03:06:59 companions, Idris, drawing her brother aside from the rest of the cavalcade, suddenly asked him, what had become of my friend, Lionel Verney. Even from this spot, replied Adrian, pointing to my sister's cottage, you can see his dwelling. Indeed, said Idris, and why, if he be so near, does he not come to see us and make one of our society? I often visit him, replied Adrian, but you may easily guess the motives, which prevent him from coming, where his presence may annoy anyone among us. I do not guess them, said Idris, and such as they are, I would not venture to combat them tell me however in what way he passes his time what is he doing and thinking in his cottage retreat nay my little sister replied adrian you ask me more than i can well answer but if you feel interest in him why not visit him he will feel highly honored and thus you may repay a part of the obligation i owe him and compensate for the injuries fortune has done him i will most readily accompany you to his abode said the lady not that i wish either of us sure unburthen ourselves of our debt, which, being no less than your life, must remain unpayable ever.

Starting point is 03:08:11 But let us go. Tomorrow, we will arrange to ride out together, and proceeding towards that part of the forest. Call upon him. The next evening, therefore, though the autumnal change, had brought on cold and rain, Adrian and Idris, entered my cottage. They found me curious-like, feasting on sorry fruits for supper, but they brought gifts richer than the golden bribes, of the Sabines, nor could I refuse the invaluable store of friendship and delight which they bestowed. Surely the glorious twins of Latona were not more welcome when, in the infancy of the world they were brought forth to beauty and enlighten this sterile promontory, then were this angelic pair to my lowly dwelling and grateful heart. We sat like one family around the hearth.

Starting point is 03:08:59 Our talk was on subjects, unconnected with the emotions that evidently occupied. each. But we each divided the other's thoughts, and, as our voices spoke of indifferent matters, our eyes, in mute language, told a thousand things no tongue could have uttered. They left me in an hour's time. They left me happy. How unspeakably happy! It did not require the measured sounds of human language to syllable the story of my ecstasy. Idris had visited me. Idris, I should again and again see. My imagination did not. wander beyond the completeness of this knowledge. I trod air. No doubt, no fear, no hope even, disturbed me. I clasped, with my soul, the fullness of contentment, satisfied, undesiring,

Starting point is 03:09:48 beatified. For many days, Adrian and Idris, continued to visit me thus. In this dear intercourse, love in the guise of enthusiastic friendship infused more and more of his omnipotent spirit. Idris felt it. Yes, divinity of the world. I read your characters in her looks and gesture. I heard your melodious voice, echoed by her. You prepared for us a soft and flowery path. All gentle thoughts adorned it. Your name, O Love, was not spoken, but you stood the genius of the hour, veiled and time, but no mortal hand might raise the curtain. Organs of articulate sound did not proclaim the union of our hearts. For, untoward circumstance, allowed no opportunity for the expression that hovered on our lips o my pen hast thou to write what was before the thought of what is arrest the hand that guides thee if i lift up my eyes and see the desert earth and feel that those dear eyes have spent their mortal lustre and that those beauteous lips are silent their crimson leaves faded forever i am mute but you live my idress even now you move before me there was a glade o reader a grassy opening in the wood, the retiring trees left its velvet expanse as a temple for love. The silver Thames bounded it on one side, and a willow, bending down, dipped in the water, its naid hair, disheveled by the wind's fuelless hand.

Starting point is 03:11:17 The oaks around were the home of the tribe of nightingales. There am I now, Idris, and Youth's Dear Prime is by my side. Remember, I am just 22, and 17 summers have scarcely passed over the loved of my heart. The river, swollen by autumnal rains, deluged the lowlands, and Adrian, in his favorite boat, is employed in the dangerous pastime of plucking the topmost bow from a submerged oak. Are you weary of life, O Adrian, that you thus play with danger? He has obtained his prize, and he pilots his boat through the flood. Our eyes were fixed on him fearfully, but the streams carried him away from us. He was forced to land, far lower down, and,

Starting point is 03:12:02 make a considerable circuit before he could join us. He is safe, said Idris, as he leapt on shore, and waved the bow over his head in token of success. We will wait for him here. We were alone together. The sun had set. The song of the nightingales began. The evening star shone distinct in the flood of light, which was yet unfated in the west.

Starting point is 03:12:23 The blue eyes of my angelic girl were fixed on this sweet emblem of herself. How the light palpitates, she said. is the star's life. Its vacillating effulgence seems to say that its state, even like ours upon earth, is wavering and inconsistent. It fears, methinks, and it loves. Gaze not on the star, dear, generous friend, I cried. Read not love in its trembling rays. Look not upon distant worlds. Speak not of the mere imagination of the sentiment. I have long been silent, long even to sickness. I have desired to speak to you, and submit my soul, my life, my entire being to you. Look not on the star, dear love, or do, and let that eternal spark plead for me.

Starting point is 03:13:09 Let it be my witness and my advocate. Silent as it shines, love is to me as light to the star, even so long as that is uneclipsed by annihilation. So long shall I love you. Failed forever to the world's callous eye must be the transport of that moment. Still, I feel her graceful form, press against my full fraught heart. Still does sight, pulse, and breath, sicken and fail at the remembrance of that first kiss. Slowly and silent, we went to meet Adrian, whom we heard approaching. I entreated Adrian to return to me after he had conducted his sister home, and that same evening,

Starting point is 03:13:50 walking among the moonlit forest paths, I poured forth my whole heart, its transport, and its hope to my friend. For a moment he looked disturbed. I might have foreseen this, he said. What strife will now ensue? Pardon me, Lionel. Nor wonder that the expectation of contest with my mother should jar me. What else I should delightedly confess that my best hopes are fulfilled in confiding my sister to your protection? If you do not already know it, you will soon learn the deep hate my mother bears to the name, Vernie.

Starting point is 03:14:23 I will converse with Idris. Then, all that a friend can do. I will do. To her, it must belong to play the lover's if she is capable of it. While the brother and sister were still hesitating at the manner they could best attempt to bring their mother over to their party, she, suspecting our meetings, taxed her children with them, taxed her fair daughter with deceit, and an unbecoming attachment for the one whose only merit was being the son of the profligate favorite of her imprudent father, and who was doubtless as worthless as he, from whom he boasted his descent. The eyes of Idris flashed at this accusation. She replied,

Starting point is 03:15:02 I do not deny that I love Varney. Prove to me that he is worthless and I will never see him more. Dear madam, said Adrian, let me entreat you to see him, to cultivate his friendship. You will wonder then, as I do, at the extent of his accomplishments and the brilliancy of his talents. Pardon me, general reader. This is not futile vanity. Not futile, since to know that Adrian felt thus. brings joy even to my loom. Mad and foolish boy, exclaimed the angry lady, you have chosen with dreams and theories to overthrow my schemes for your own aggrandizement, but you shall not do the same by those I have formed for your sister. I, but too well understand the fascination you both labor under, since I had the same struggle with your father to make him

Starting point is 03:15:51 cast off the parent of this youth who hid his evil propensities with the smooth and subtlety of a viper. In those days, how often did I hear of his attractions, his widespread conquests, his wit, his refined manners? It is well, when flies only, are caught by such spider's webs, but it is for the high-born and powerful to bow their necks to the flimsy yoke of these unmeaning pretensions. Were your sister indeed the insignificant person she deserves to be, I would willingly leave her to the fate, the wretched fate of the wife of a man whose very person, resembling as it does, his wretched father ought to remind you of the folly and vice it typifies. But remember, Lady Idris, it is not alone the once royal blood of England that

Starting point is 03:16:38 courses your veins. You are a princess of Austria, and every life-drop is akin to emperors and kings. Are you then a fit mate for an uneducated shepherd-boy whose only inheritance is his father's tarnished name? I can make but one defense, replied Idris. the same offered by my brother see lionel converse with my shepherd boy the countess interrupted her indignantly yours she crud and then smoothing her impassioned features to a disdainful smile she continued we will talk of this another time all i now ask all your mother idris requests is that you will not see this upstart during the interval of one month i dare not comply said idris it would pain him too much i have not but-ixtrous i have not yet right to play with his feelings, to accept his proffered love, and then sting him with neglect. This is going too far, her mother answered, with quivering lips, and eyes again, instinct by anger.

Starting point is 03:17:40 Nay, madam, said Adrian. Unless my sister consent never to see him again, it is surely an useless torment to separate them for a month. Certainly, replied the ex-Queen, with bitter scorn. His love and her love, and both are sure. childish flutterings are to be put in fit comparison with my years of hope and anxiety, with the duties of the offspring of kings, with the high and dignified conduct which one of her dissent ought to pursue. But it is unworthy of me to argue and complain. Perhaps you will

Starting point is 03:18:14 have the goodness to promise me not to marry during that interval. This was asked only half ironically, and Idris wondered why her mother should extort from her a solemn vow not to do. What she had never dreamt of doing, but the promise was required and all went on cheerfully now. We met as usual and talked without dread of our future plans. The Countess was so gentle and even beyond her want, amiable with her children, that they began to entertain hopes of her ultimate consent. She was too unlike them, too utterly alien to their tastes, for them to find delight in her society, or in the prospect of its continuance. But it gave them pleasure to see her conciliated. and kind. Once even, Adrian ventured to propose her receiving me. She refused with a smile,

Starting point is 03:19:03 reminding him that for the present her sister had promised to be patient. One day, after the lapse of nearly a month, Adrian received a letter from a friend in London, requesting his immediate presence for the furtherance of some important object. Godless himself, Adrian feared no deceit. I rode with him as far as stains. He was on the high spirits, and since I could not see Idris. During his absence, he promised a speedy return. His gaiety, which was extreme, had the strange effect of awakening in me. Contrary feelings. A presentment of evil hung over me. I loitered on my return. I counted the hours that must elapse before I saw Idris again. Wherefore should this be? What evil might not happen in the meantime? Might not her mother take advantage of Adrian's absence

Starting point is 03:19:51 to urge her beyond her sufferance, perhaps to entrap her. I resolve what what would befall to see and converse with her the following day. This determination soothed me. Tomorrow, loveliest and best. Hope and joy of my life. Tomorrow, I will see thee, fool, to dream of a moment's delay. I went to rest. At past midnight I was awakened by a violent knocking.

Starting point is 03:20:15 It was now deep winter. It had snowed and was still snowing. The wind whistled in the leafless trees, despoiling them of their white flakes as they fell. It's drear moaning and the continued knocking mingled wildly with my dreams. At length I was wide awake, hastily dressing myself, I hurried to discover the cause of this disturbance, and to open my door to the unexpected visitor. Pale as the snow that showered about her, with clasped hands, it dristed before me.

Starting point is 03:20:44 Save me, she exclaimed, and would have shrunk to the ground had I not supported her. In a moment, however, she revived, and, with energy, almost with violence, treated me to saddle horses to take her away, away to London, to her brother, at least to save her. I had no horses. She wrung her hands. What can I do? She cried. I am lost. We are both forever lost. But come. Come with me, Lionel. Here I must not stay. We can get a chase at the nearest post house. Yet perhaps we have time. Come. Oh, come with me to save and protect me. When I heard her piteous demands, while with disordered dress, dishevelled hair and aghast looks, she wrung her hands.

Starting point is 03:21:28 The idea shot across me. Is she also mad? Sweet one, and I folded her to my heart. Better repose, than wander further. Rest, my beloved. I will make a fire. You are chilled. Rest, she cried.

Starting point is 03:21:40 Repose, you rave, Lionel. If you delay, we are lost. Come, I pray you, unless you would cast me off forever. That Idris, the princely born, Nersling of wealth and luxury Should have come through the tempestuous winter night From her regal abode And, standing at my lowly door,

Starting point is 03:21:57 Conjure me to fly with her through darkness and storm Was surely a dream. Again, her plaintive tones, The sight of her loveliness, Assured me that it was no vision. Looking timidly around, As if she feared to be overheard, She whispered, I have discovered,

Starting point is 03:22:13 Tomorrow, that is, today, Already the tomorrow has come. Before dawn, foreigners, Austrians. My mother's hirelings are to carry me off to Germany, prison, to marriage, to anything, except you and my brother. Take me away, or soon they will be here. I was frightened by her vehemence and imagined some mistake in her incoherent tale, but I no longer hesitated to obey her. She had come by herself from the castle, three long miles at midnight, through the heavy snow. We must reach Engelfield Green, a mile and a half further, before we could obtain a chase. She told us, she told us. me that she had kept up her strength and courage till her arrival at my cottage and then both failed. Now she could hardly walk. Supporting her as I did, still she lagged, and at the distance of half a mile after many stoppages, shiver and fits and half faintings, she slipped from my supporting arms onto the snow, and with a torrent of tears, averred that she must be taken,

Starting point is 03:23:12 for that she could not proceed. I lifted her up in my arms, her form rested on my breast. I felt no burden of the contrary and contending emotions. Brimming delight now invested me. Again, her chill limbs touched me as a toil, and I shuddered in sympathy with her pain and fright. Her head lay on my shoulder, her breath waved my hair, her heartbeat near mine, transport made me tremble, blinded me,

Starting point is 03:23:38 annihilated me, till a suppressed groan bursting from her lips, the chattering of her teeth, which she strove vainly to subdue and all the signs of suffering she evinced recalled me to the necessity of speed and succour at last i said to her there is inglefield green there the end but if you are seen thus strangely circumstanced dear idris even now your enemies may learn your flight too soon were it not better that i hired a chaise alone i will put you in safety meanwhile and return to you immediately she answered that i was right and might do with her as i pleased i observed the door of a small outhouse ajar i pushed it open and with some haste-strut about i formed a couch for her placing her exhausted frame in it and covering her with my cloak i feared to leave her she looked so wan and faint but in a moment she reacquired animation and with that fear and again she implored me not to delay to call upon the people of the inn and obtain a conveyance and horses even though i harness them myself was the work of many minutes minutes each frightened with our weight of ages i caused the chaise to advance a little waited till the people of the inn had retired and then made the post-boy draw up the carriage to the spot where idris impatient and now somewhat recovered stood waiting for me i lifted her into the chaise

Starting point is 03:25:01 i assured her that with our four horses we should arrive in london before five o'clock the hour when she would be sought and missed i besought her to calm herself a kindly shower of tears relieved her and by degrees she related her tale of fear and peril. The same night after Adrian's departure, her mother had warmly expostulated with her on the subject of her attachment to me. Every motive, every threat, every angry taunt was urged in vain. She seemed to consider that through me she had lost Raymond.

Starting point is 03:25:36 I was the evil influence of her life. I was even accused of increasing and confirming the mad and base apostasy of Adrian from all views of advancement and grandeur. And now this miserable mountaineer was to steal her daughter. Never, Idris related, did the angry lady deign to recur to gentleness and persuasion. If she had the task of resistance would have been exquisitely painful. As it was, the sweet girl's generous nature was roused to defend and ally herself with my despised cause. Her mother ended with a look of contempt and covert triumph, which, for a moment, awakened the suspicions of Idris.

Starting point is 03:26:20 When they parted for the night, the Countess said, Tomorrow I trust your tongue will be changed. Be composed. I have agitated you. Go to rest, and I will send you a medicine I always take when unduly restless. It will give you a quiet night. By the time that she had, with uneasy thoughts, laid her fair cheek upon her pillow. her mother's servant brought a draft. A suspicion again crossed her at this novel proceeding,

Starting point is 03:26:46 sufficiently alarming to determine her not to take the potion. But dislike of contention and a wish to discover whether there was any just foundation for her conjectures made her, she said, almost instinctively, and in contradiction to her usual frankness, pretended to swallow the medicine. Then, agitated as she had been by her mother's violence, and now on accustomed fears she lay unable to sleep, starting at every sound.

Starting point is 03:27:14 Soon her door opened softly, and on her springing up, she heard a whisper, not asleep yet, and the door again closed. With a beating heart, she expected another visit, and when, after an interval, her chamber was again invaded, having first assured herself that the intruders were her mother and an attendant. She composed herself to faint sleep. A step approached her bed. She dared not. She strove to calm her palpitations, which became more violent.

Starting point is 03:27:41 When she heard her mother say, mutteringly, pretty simpleton, little do you think that your game is already at an end forever. For a moment the poor girl fancied that her mother believed that she had drank poison. She was on the point of springing up when the countess, already at a distance from the bed, spoke in a low voice to her companion, and again Idris listened. Hasten said she, there is no time to lose. It is long past 11. They will be here at 5.

Starting point is 03:28:07 take merely the clothes necessary for her journey and her jewel-casket the servant obeyed few words were spoken on either side but those were caught at with avidity by the intended victim she heard the name of her own maid mentioned no no replied her she does not go with us lady idris must forget england and all belonging to it and again she hurt she will not wake till late to-morrow and we shall then be at sea all is ready at length the woman announced the countess again came to her daughter's bedside in austria at least she said you will obey in austria where obedience can be enforced and no choice left but between the honorable prison and a fitting marriage both then withdrew though as she went the countess said softly all sleep though all have not been prepared for sleep like her i would not have any one suspect or she might be roused to resistance and perhaps escape come with me to my room we will remain there till the hour agreed upon they went idris panic struck but animated and strengthened even by her excessive fear, dressed herself hurriedly, and going down a flight of back stairs, avoiding the vicinity of her mother's apartment, she contrived to escape from the castle by the low window, and came through the snow, wind, and obscurity to my cottage, nor lost her courage until she arrived, and, depositing her fate in my hands, gave herself up to the desperation

Starting point is 03:29:31 and weariness that overwhelmed her. I comforted her as well as I might. Joy and exultation were mine to possess and to save her. Yet not to excite fresh agitation in her. Pyr, non, Turbar, Kel, Belle, Viso, Sereno. I curbed my delight. I strove to quiet the eager dancing of my heart. I turned from her my eyes, beaming with too much tenderness and proudly to dark night, and the inclement atmosphere, murmured the expressions of my transport. We reached London, methought, all too soon, and yet I could not regret our speedy arrival. When I was, witnessed the ecstasy with which my beloved girl found herself in her brother's arms, safe from every evil, under his unblamed protection. Adrian wrote a brief note to his mother,

Starting point is 03:30:18 informing her that Idris was under his care and guardianship. Several days elapsed, and at last an answer came, dated from Cologne. It was useless, the haughty and disappointed lady wrote, for the Earl of Windsor and his sister to address again the injured parent, whose only expectation of tranquillity must be derived from oblivion of their existence. Her desires had been blasted, her schemes overthrown. She did not complain, in her brother's court she would find not compensation for their disobedience. Filiol unkindness admitted of none. But such a state of things and mode of life, as might best reconcile her to her fate. Under such circumstances, she positively declined any communication with them. Such were the strange and incredible events that finally

Starting point is 03:31:05 brought about my union with the sister of my best friend, with my adored Idris. With simplicity and courage, she set aside the prejudices and oppositions, which were obstacles to my happiness, nor scrumpled to give her hand where she had her heart, to be worthy of her, to raise myself to her height, through the exertion of talents and virtue, to repay her love with devoted, unwearied tenderness, were the only thanks I could offer for the matchless gift. End of chapter. Volume 1, Chapter 6 of The Last Man. This is a Librivox recording.

Starting point is 03:31:45 All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Monsbrough. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 1, Chapter 6. And now let the reader, Passing over some short period of time, we introduced to our happy circle. Adrian, Idris, and I were established in Windsor Castle. Lord Raymond and my sister inhabited a house which the foreman had built on the borders of the Great Park,

Starting point is 03:32:22 near Purditor's cottage, as was still named Low-roofed Abode, where we two, poor even in hope, had each received the assurance of our felicity. We had our separate occupations and our common amusements. Sometimes we passed whole days under the leafy cover to the forest with our books and music. This occurred during those rare days in this country, when the sun mounts his ethereal throne in the unclouded majesty, and the windless atmosphere, is a bath of pellucid and grateful water, wrapping the senses in tranquility. When the clouds veiled the sky, and the wind scattered them there and here,

Starting point is 03:33:03 rending their wolf and strewing its fragments through the aerial plains. Then we rode out and sought new spots of beauty and repose. When the frequent rains shut us with indoors, evening recreation followed the morning study, ushered in by music and song. Idris had a natural musical talent, and her voice, which had been carefully cultivated, was full and sweet. Raymond and I made a part of the concert, and Adrian and Perdita were devoutly Then we were as gay as summer insects, playful as children. We ever met one another with smiles and read content and joy in each other's countenances. Our prime festivals were held in Purita's cottage. Nor were we ever wary of talking of the past or dreaming of the future. Jealousy and disquiet were unknown among us. Nor did the fear or hope of change ever disturb our tranquility. Others said we might be happy.

Starting point is 03:34:03 We said we are. When any separation took place between us, it generally so happened that Idris and Perdita would ramble away together. We remained to discuss the affairs of nations and the philosophy of life. The very difference of our dispositions gave the zest to these conversations. Adrian had the superiority in learning and eloquence, but Raymond possessed a quick penetration and the practical knowledge of life, which usually displayed itself in opposition to Adrian, and thus kept up the ball of discussion. But other times we made excursions of many days' duration, and crossed the country to visit any spot noted for beauty or historical association. Sometimes we went up to London and entered into the amusements of the busy throng.

Starting point is 03:34:54 Sometimes our retreat was invaded by visitors from among them. This change made us only the more sensible to the delights of the intimate, the course of our own circle, the tranquillity of our divine forest, and our happy evenings and the halls of our beloved castle. The disposition of Idris was peculiarly frank, soft, and affectionate. Her temper was unalterably sweet, and although firm and resolute on any point that touched her heart, she was yielding to those she loved. The nature of Perdita was less perfect, but tenderness and happiness improved her temper, and softened her natural, deserve. Her understanding was clear and comprehensive, her imagination vivid, she was sincere,

Starting point is 03:35:40 generous, and reasonable. Adrian, the matchless brother of my soul, the sensitive and excellent Adrian, loving all and beloved by all, yet seemed destined not to find the half of himself, which was to complete his happiness. He often left us and wandered by himself in the woods, or sailed in his little skiff, his books his only companions. He was often the gate. He was often the gate. He was often the of our party, at the same time that he was the only one visited by fits of despondency. His slender frame seemed overcharged with the weight of life, and his soul appeared rather to inhabit his body than unite with it. I was hardly more devoted to my idris than to her brother, and she loved him as her teacher, her friend, the benefactor who had secured to her their

Starting point is 03:36:28 fulfillment of her dearest wishes. Raymond, the ambitious, restless Raymond, reposed midway on the great high road of life, and was content to give up all his schemes of sovereignty and fame, to make one of us the flower of the field. His kingdom was the heart of Perdita, his subject, her thoughts, by her he was loved, respected as a superior being, obeyed, waited on. No office, no devotion, no watching was irksome to her as it regarded him she would sit apart from us and watch him she would weep for joy to think that he was hers she erected a temple for him in the death of her being and each faculty was a priestess vowed to his service sometimes she might be wayward and capricious but her repentance was bitter her return entire and even this inequality of temperance suited him who was not formed by nature to float idly down the stream of life. During the first year of the marriage, Perdita presented Raymond with a lovely girl.

Starting point is 03:37:36 It was curious to trace in this miniature model the very traits of its father. The same half-disdainful lips and smile of triumph, the same intelligent eyes, the same brow and chestnut hair, her very hands and taper fingers resembled his. How very dear she was to Perdita. In progress of time, I also became father. And our little darlings, our playthings and delights, call forth a thousand new and delicious feelings. Years passed us, even years.

Starting point is 03:38:12 Each month were of fort its successor, each year one liked to the gone by. Truly our lives were a living comment on that beautiful sentiment of Plutarch, that our souls have a natural and inclusion. to love, being born as much to love as to feel to reason, to understand, and remember. We talked of change and active pursuits, but still remained at Windsor, incapable of violating the charm that attracted us to our secluded life. We are our acceded all the ben-racolted, ce fra mortally in few partes in remembra.

Starting point is 03:38:51 Now also that our children gave us occupation, we found excuse. for our idleness, in the idea of bringing them up to a more splendid career. At length our tranquillity was disturbed, and the course of events, which for five years had flowed on in hushing tranquility, was broken by breakers and obstacles that woke us up from our pleasant dream. A new Lord Protector of England was to be chosen, and at Raymond's request we removed to London to witness and even take part in the election. If Raymond had been united to Idris, this post had been his stepping stone to higher divinity, and his desire for power and fame had been crowned with fullest measure. He had exchanged a sceptre for a lute, a kingdom for Perdita.

Starting point is 03:39:39 Did he think of this as we journeyed up to town? I watched him, but could make but little of him. He was particularly gay, playing with his child, and turning to sport every word that was uttered. perhaps he did this because he saw cloud upon perdita's brow she tried to rouse herself but her eyes were now and then filled with tears and she looked wistfully on raymond and her girl as if fearful that some evil would betide them and so she felt a pre sentiment of ill hung over her she leaned from the window looking on the forest and the turrets of the castle and as these became hid by intervening objects she passioned exclaimed, scenes of happiness, scenes sacred to devoted love, when shall I see you again? And when I see ye, shall I be still the beloved and joyous, spirita, or shall I, heartbroken and lost, wonder among your groves, the ghost of what I am? Why, silly one, cried Raymond, what is your little head pondering upon, that of a sudden

Starting point is 03:40:46 you have become so sublimely dismal? cheer up, or I shall make you over to Idris and call Adrian into the carriage, who, I see by his gesture, sympathizes with my good spirits. Adrian was on horseback. He rode up to the carriage, and his gaiety, in addition to that of Raymond, dispelled my sisters melancholy. We entered London in the evening, and went to our several abodes near Hyde Park. The following morning, Lord Raymond visited me early. I come to you, he is. said, only half assured that you will assist me in my project, but resolved to go through that, whether you concur with me or not. Promise me secrecy, however, for if you will not contribute to my success, at least you must not baffle me. Well, I promise, and now, and now, my dear fellow,

Starting point is 03:41:39 for what are we come to London, to be present at the election of a protector, and to give a yea or nay for his shuffling grace of, or for that noisy island? Do you believe, Vernay, that I brought you to town for that? No. We will have a protector of our own. We will set up a candidate and ensure his success. We will nominate Adrian, and do our best to bestow on him the power to which he is entitled by his birth, and which he merits through his virtues.

Starting point is 03:42:11 Do not answer. I know all of your objections, and do not answer. I know all of your objections, and do you reply to them in order. First, whether he will or he will not consent to become a great man. Leave the task of persuasion on that point to me. I do not ask you to assist me there. Secondly, whether he ought to exchange his employment of plucking blackberries and nursing wounded partridges in the forest for the command of a nation. My dear Lionel, we are married men, and find employment sufficient in them using our wives and dancing our children. But Adrian is alone. Wifeless, childless, unoccupied.

Starting point is 03:42:47 I have long observed him. He pines for want of some interest in life. His heart, exhausted by his early sufferings, reposes like a new-heeled limb, and shrinks from all excitement. But his understanding, his charity, his virtues, want a field for exercise and display. We will procure it for him. Besides, is it not a shame that the genius of Adrian

Starting point is 03:43:14 should fade from the earth like a flower in an untrod mountain path, fruitless. Do you think nature composed his surpassing machine? For no purpose, believe me, he was destined to be the author of infinite good to his native England. Has she not bestowed on him every gift in prodigality, birth, wealth, talent, goodness? Does not everyone love and admire him? And does he not delight singly in such efforts as manifestly? his love to all. Come, I see that you are already persuaded, and will second me when I propose him tonight in Parliament. You have got up all your arguments in excellent order, I replied, and, if

Starting point is 03:43:57 they did consent, they are unanswerable. One only condition I would make, that you do nothing without his concurrence. I believe you are in the right, said Raymond. Although I had thought at first to arrange the affair differently. Beat so. I will go instantly to Adrian, and if he inclines to consent, you will not destroy my labour by persuading him to return, and turn squirrel again in Windsor Forest. Idris, you will not act a traitor towards me. Trust me, replied she. I will preserve a strict neutrality. For my part, said I, I am too well convinced of the word of our friend, and the rich harvests of benefits that all England would reap from his protectorship to deprive my countrymen of such a blessing, if he consent to bestow it on them. In the evening Adrian visited us.

Starting point is 03:44:52 Do you cable also against me? said he, laughing, and will you make common cause with Raymond in dragging a poor visionary from the clouds to surround him with the fireworks and blasts of earthly grandeur instead of heavenly raisiners? I thought you knew me better. i do know you better i replied than to think that you would be happy in such a situation but the good you would do to others may be an inducement since the time is probably arrived when you can put your theories into practice and you may bring about such an affirmation and change as will conduce to the perfect system of government which you delight to portray you speak of an almost forgotten dream said adrian his countenance slightly clouding as he spoke the visions of my boyhood have long since faded into the light of reality i know now that i am not a man fitted to govern nations sufficient to me if i keep in wholesome rule the little kingdom of my own mortality but do you not see lionel the drift of our noble friend a drift perhaps unknown to himself but apparent to me lord raymond was never born to be a drone in the hive and to find content in our pastoral life he thinks thinks that he ought to be satisfied. He imagines that his present situation precludes the possibility of aggrandizement. He does not, therefore, even in his own heart, plan change for himself.

Starting point is 03:46:22 But do you not see that, under the idea of exulting me, he is choking out a new path for himself, a part of action from which he has long wondered. Let us assist him. He, the noble, the warlike, the great in every quality that can and adorn the mind and person of man. He is fitted to be the protector of England. If I, that is, if we propose him, you will assuredly be elected, then we'll find, in the functions of that high office, scope for the towering powers of his mind. Even Peridita will rejoice, Perida in whom ambition was a covered fire until she married Raymond. Which event was for the time the fulfilment of her hopes?

Starting point is 03:47:05 Perita will rejoice in the glory and advancement of her lord, and coyly and prettily not be discontented with her share. In the meantime, we, the wise of the land, will return to our castle, and since inattus-like, take to our usual labors, until our friend shall require our presence and assistance here. The more Adrian reasoned upon this scheme, the more feasible it appeared. His own determination, never to enter into public life, was insurmount. and the delicacy of his health was a sufficient argument against it. The next step was to induce Raymond to confess his secret wishes for dignity and fame. He entered while we were speaking. The way in which Adrian had received his project for setting him up as a candidate for the protectorship,

Starting point is 03:47:55 and his replies had already awakened in his mind. The view of the subject which we were now discussing, his counteners and manner betrayed irresolution and anxiety, but the anxiety arose from a fear that we shall not prosecute or not succeed in our idea and his irresolution from a doubt whether we should risk a defeat a few words from us decided him and hope and joy sparkled in his eyes the idea of embarking in a career so congenial to his early habits and cherished wishes made him as before energetic and bold we discussed his chances the merits of the other candidates and the positions of the voters. After all, we miscalculated. Raymond had lost much of his popularity,

Starting point is 03:48:44 and was deserted by his peculiar partisans. Absence from the busy stage had caused him to be forgotten by the people. His former parliamentary supporters were principally composed of royalists, who had been willing to make an idol of him when he appeared as the heir of the earldom of Windsor, but who were indifferent to him when he came forward with no other at aughty. and distinctions than they conceived to be common to many of themselves. Still he had many friends, admirers of his transcendent talents. His presence in the house, his eloquence, address and imposing beauty,

Starting point is 03:49:18 were calculated to produce an electric effect. Adrian also, notwithstanding his reclusive habits and theories, so adverse to the spirit of party, had many friends, and they were easily induced to vote for a candidate of his selection. The Duke of and Mr. Ryland, Lord Raymond's old antagonist, were the other candidates. The Duke was supported by all the aristocrats of the Republic, who considered him the proper representative. Ryland was the popular candidate. When Lord Raymond was first added to the list, his chance of success appeared small.

Starting point is 03:49:58 We retired from the debate which had followed on his nomination. We his nominators mortified. he dispirited to excess. Perdita reproached us bitterly. Her expectations had been strongly excited. She had urged nothing against our project. On the contrary, she was evidently pleased by it. But its evident ill success changed the current of our ideas.

Starting point is 03:50:23 She felt that once awakened, Raymond would never return unrepining to Windsor. His habits were unhinged. His restless mind roused from its sleep. Ambition must now be his companion through life, and if he did not succeed in the present attempt, she foresaw that unhappiness and cureless discontent would follow. Perhaps her own disappointment added a sting to her thought and words. She did not spare us, and our own reflections added to our disquietude.

Starting point is 03:50:56 It was necessary to follow up our nomination, and to persuade Raymond to present himself to the electors on the following evening, for a long time he was obstinate. He would embark in a balloon. He would sail for a distant quarter of the world, where his name and humiliation were unknown. But this was useless. His attempt was registered, his purpose published through the world,

Starting point is 03:51:20 his shame should never be raised from the memories of men. It was as well to fail, at least after his struggle, as to fly now at the beginning of his enterprise. From the moment that he had offered, this idea, he was changed. His depression and anxiety fled. He became all life and activity. The smile of triumph shown on his countenance, determined to pursue his object to the uttermost. His manner and expression seemed ominous of the accomplishment of his wishes. Not so, Peridita. She was frightened by his gaiety, for she dreaded a greater revulsion at the end.

Starting point is 03:51:59 If his appearance even inspired us with hope, it only rendered the state of her mind more painful. She feared to lose sight of him, yet she dreaded to remark any change in the temper of his mind. She listened eagerly to him, yet tantalized herself by giving to his words a meaning foreign to their true interpretation, and adverse to her hopes. She dared not be present at the contest, yet she remained at home a prey to double solicitude. She wept over her little girl, she looked, she spoke, as if she dreaded the occurrence of on some frightful calamity. She was half mad from the effects of uncontrollable agitation.

Starting point is 03:52:41 Lord Raymond presented himself to the house, with fearless confidence and insinuating address. After the Duke of and Mr. Ryland had finished their speeches, he commenced. Assuredly he had not conned his lesson, and at first he hesitated, pausing in his ideas and in the choice of his expressions, By degrees he warmed, his words flowed with ease, his language was full of vigor, and his voice of persuasion. He reverted to his past life, his successes in Greece, his favorite home.

Starting point is 03:53:15 Why should he lose this, now that added years, prudence, and the pledge which his marriage gave to his country, ought to increase rather than diminish his claims to confidence? He spoke of the State of England, the necessary measures to be taken to ensure its security, and confirm its prosperity. He drew a glowing picture of its present situation. As he spoke, every sound was hushed, every thought suspended by intense attention. His graceful elocution enchained the senses of the hearers. In some degree also he was fitted to reconcile all parties.

Starting point is 03:53:52 His birth pleased the aristocracy. His being the candidate recommended by Adrian, a man intimately allied to the popular party, cost a number who had no greater alliance either on the Duke or Mr. Ryland to range on his side. The contest was keen and doubtful. Neither Adrian or myself would have been so anxious if our success had depended on our exertions, but we had egged our friend on to the enterprise, and it became us to ensure his triumph.

Starting point is 03:54:23 Idris, who entertained the highest opinion of his abilities, was warmly interested in the event, and my poor sister, who dared not hope, and to whom fear was misery was plunged into a fever of disquietude. Day after day passed while we discussed our projects for the evening, and each night was occupied by debates which offered no conclusion. At last the crisis came. The night when Parliament, which had so long delayed its course, must decide,

Starting point is 03:54:52 as the hour of twelve passed and the new day began. It was by virtue of the constitution dissolved its power extinct. We assembled at Raymond's house, we and our partisans at half-past five o'clock we proceeded to the house edris endeavoured to comperdita but the poor girl's aditation deprived her of all power of self-command she walked up and down the room gazed wildly when any one entered fancying that they might be the announcers of her doom i must do justice to my sweet sister it was not for herself that she was thus agonized she alone knew the weight which was frame and attached to his success even to us he assumed gaiety and hope and assumed them so well that we did not divine the secret workings of his mind sometimes a nervous trembling a sharp dissonance of voice and momentary fits of absence revealed to perdita the violence he did himself but we intent on our plans observed only his ready laugh his joke intruded on all occasions the flow of his spirits which seemed incapable of Ebb. Besides, Perlita was with him in his retirement. She saw the moodiness that succeeded to this

Starting point is 03:56:10 forced hilarity. She marked his disturbed sleep, his painful irritability. Once she had seen his tears, hers had scarce ceased to flow, since she had beheld the big drops which disappointed pride had caused to gather in his eye, but which pride was unable to dispel. What wonder then that her feelings were wrought, this pitch. I thus accounted to myself for her agitation, but this was not all, and the sequel revealed another excuse. One moment we ceased before our departure to take leave of our beloved girls. I had small hope of success, and entreated Idris to watch over my sister. As I approached the latter, she seized my hand and drew me into another apartment. She threw herself into my arms and wept and sobbed bitterly and long. I tried to soothe her. I bade her hope. I asked what tremendous consequences

Starting point is 03:57:08 would ensue even on our failure. My brother, she cried. Protect her of my childhood, dear, most dear Lionel, my fate hangs by a thread. I have you all about me now, you the companion of my infancy. Adrian as dear to me as if bound by the ties of blood, Idris, the sister of my heart, and her lovely offspring. This, oh, this may be the last time that you will surround me thus. Abruptly she stopped, and then cried, What have I said, foolish, false girl that I am? She looked wildly on me, and then suddenly calming herself,

Starting point is 03:57:47 apologized for what she called her unmeaning words, saying that she must indeed be insane, for while Raymond lived, she must be happy. And then, though she still wept, she suffered me tranquilly, to depart. Raymond only took her hand when he went and looked on her expressively. She answered by a look of intelligence and assent. Poor girl. What she then suffered. I could never entirely forgive Raymond for the trials he imposed on her, occasioned as they were by a selfish feeling on his part. He had schemed if he failed in his present attempt without taking leave of any of us to embark for Greece and never again to

Starting point is 03:58:27 revisit England. Perida acceded to his wishes, for his contentment was the chief object of her life, the crown of her enjoyment, but to leave us all, her companions, the beloved partners of her happiest years, and in the interim to conceal this frightful determination, was a task that almost conquered her strength of mind. She had been employed in arranging for their departure. She had promised Raymond during this decisive evening to take advantage of our absence. to go one stage of the journey, and he, after his defeat was ascertained, would slip away from us and join her. Although, when I was informed of this scheme, I was bitterly offended by the small attention which Raymond paid to my sister's feelings, I was led by reflection to consider that he acted under the force of such strong excitement as to take from him the consciousness, and, consequently, the guilt of a fault, if he had permitted us to witness his agitation,

Starting point is 03:59:25 he would have been more under the guidance of reason but his struggles for the shoe of composure acted with such violence on his nerves as to destroy his power of self-command i am convinced that at the worst he would have returned from the seashore to take leave of us and to make us the partners of his counsel but the task imposed on pyridita was not the less painful he had exhorted from her a vow of secrecy and her part of the drama since it was to be performed alone was the most agonizing that could be devised. But to return to my narrative, the debates had hitherto been long and loud, they had often been protracted merely for the sake of delay, but now each seemed fearful lest the fatal moment should pass, while the choice was yet undecided. Unwanted silence reigned in the house, the members spoke in whispers, and the ordinary business was transacted with celerity and quietness. During the first stage of the election, the duke of had been thrown out. The question therefore lay between Lord Raymond and Mr. Ireland. The latter had felt secure

Starting point is 04:00:38 of victory until the appearance of Raymond, and since his name had been inserted as a candidate, he had canvassed with eagerness. He had appeared each evening, impations and anger marked in his looks scowling on us from the opposite side of St. Stephens, as if his mere frown could cause eclipse on our hopes. Everything in the English constitution had been regulated for the better preservation of peace. On the last day, two candidates only were allowed to remain, and to obviate, if possible, the last struggle between these. A bride was offered to him who should voluntarily assign his pretensions. A place of great emolument and honour was given him. and this success facilitated at a future election.

Starting point is 04:01:26 Strange to say, however, no instance had yet occurred, where either a candidate had recourse to this expedient. In consequence, the law had become obsolete, nor had been referred to by any of us in our discussions. To our extreme surprise, when it was moved that we should resolve ourselves into a committee for the election of the Lord Protector, the member who had nominated Ryland, Rosend informed us that this candidate had resigned his pretensions.

Starting point is 04:01:55 His information was at first received with silence. A confused murmur succeeded, and, when the chairman declared Lord Raymond duly chosen, it amounted to a shout of applause and victory. It seemed as if, far from any dread of defeat, even if Mr. Island had not resigned, every voice would have been united in favor of our candidate. In fact, now that the idea of contest was dismissed, all hearts returned to the former respect and admiration of our accomplished friend.

Starting point is 04:02:27 Each felt that England had never seen a protector so capable of fulfilling the arduous duties of that high office. One voice made of many voices, resounded through the chamber. It syllable the name of Raymond. He entered. I was on the highest, I was on one of the highest seats, and saw him walk up the passage to the passage, to the table of the speaker. Native modesty of its disposition conquered the joy of his triumph.

Starting point is 04:02:54 He looked round timidly. A mist seemed before his eyes. Adrian, who was beside me, hastened to him, and jumping down the benches was at his side in a moment. His appearance reanimated our friend, and when he came to speak and act, his hesitation vanished, and he shone out supreme in majesty and victory.

Starting point is 04:03:16 The former protracted, The protector tendered him the oaths and presented him of the insignia of office, performing the ceremonies of installation. The house then dissolved. The chief members of the state crowded around the new magistrate and conducted him to the palace of government. Adrian suddenly vanished, and by the time that Raymond's supporters were reduced to our intimate friends merely, returned, leading Idris to congratulate her friend on his success. But where was Perdita? In securing a solicitously and unobserved retreat in case of failure,

Starting point is 04:03:51 Raymond had forgotten to arrange the mode by which she was to hear of his success, and she had been too much agitated to revert to this circumstance. When he dissented, so far had Raymond forgotten himself, that he asked for my sister, one word which told of her mysterious disappearance, recalled him. Adrian, it is true, had already gone to seek the fugitive, imagining that her tameless anxiety had led her. to the perlieus of the house and at some sinister event detained her but raymond without explaining himself suddenly quitted us and in another moment we heard him gallop down the street in spite of the wind and rain that scattered the tempest over the earth we did not know how far he had to go and soon separated

Starting point is 04:04:34 supposing that in a short time he would return to the palace with pyridita and that they should not be sorry to find themselves alone peridita had arrived with her child at dafford weeping and inconsolable she directed everything to be prepared for the continuance of their journey and placing her lovely sleeping charge on a bed past several hours in acute suffering sometimes she observed the war of the elements thinking that they also declared against her and listened to the pattering of the rain and the glooming gisper sometimes she hung over the child tracing her resemblance to the father and fearful lest in afterlife, she would display the same passions and uncontrollable impulses that rendered him unhappy. Again, with a gush of pride and delight, she marked in the features of her little girl, the same smile of beauty that often irradiated Raymond's countenance. The sight of it soothed her. She thought of the treasure she possessed in the affections of her lord, of his accomplishments, surpassing those of his contemporaries, his genius, his devotion to her.

Starting point is 04:05:41 soon she thought that all she possessed in the world except him might well be spared nay given with delight a propitiary offering to secure the supreme good she retained in him soon she imagined that fate demanded this sacrifice from her as a mark she was devoted to raymond and that it must be made with cheerfulness she figured to herself their life in the greek isle he had selected for their retreat her task of suiting him her cares for the beauty of clara her rides in his company her dedication of herself to his consolation the picture then presented itself to her in such glowing colors that she feared the reverse and the life of magnificence and power in london where raymond would no longer be hers only nor she the sole source of happiness to him so far as she merely was concerned she began to hope for defeat and it was only on his account that her feelings vacillated as she heard him gallop into the courtyard of the inn that he should come to her alone weathered by the storm careless of everything except speed what else could it mean than that vanquished and solitary they were to take their way from native england the scene of shame and hide themselves in the myrtle groves or the grecian isles in a moment she was in his arms the knowledge of his success had become so much a part of himself that he forgot that it was necessary to impart it to his companion she only felt in his embrace a dear assurance that while he possessed her You would not despair. This is kind, she cried.

Starting point is 04:07:18 This is noble, my own beloved. Oh, fear not disgrace or lowly fortune, while you have your periodita. Fear not sorrow, while our child lives and smiles. Let us go even where you will. The love that accompanies us will prevent our regrets.

Starting point is 04:07:35 Locked in his embrace, she spoke with us, and cast back her head, seeking an assent to her words in his eyes. They were sparkling with ineffable delight. why my little lady protectress said he playfully what is this you say and what pretty scheme have you woven of exile and obscurity while a brighter web a golden woven tissue is that which in truth you ought to contemplate he kissed her brow but the wavered girl half sorry at his triumph agitated by swift change of thought hid her face in his bosom and wept he comforted her he instilled into her his own hopes and desires, and soon her countenance beamed with sympathy.

Starting point is 04:08:20 How very happy were they that night? How full into bursting was their sense of joy. End of Chapter 6. Recording by Monsbrough, Rouselux, Finland. Volume 1, Chapter 7 of The Last Man. This is a Librivox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org.

Starting point is 04:08:56 Recording by Philippa Willits. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 1, Chapter 7. Having seen our friend properly installed in his new office, we turned our eyes towards Windsor. The nearness of this place to London was such as to take away the idea of painful separation when we quitted Raymond and Padita. we took leave of them in the protectoral palace it was pretty enough to see my sister enter as it were into the spirit of the drama and endeavored to fill her station with becoming dignity her internal pride and humility of manner were now more than ever at war her timidity was not artificial but arose from that fear of not being properly appreciated that slight estimation of the neglect of the world which also characterised Raymond. But then Pedita thought more constantly of others than he,

Starting point is 04:10:02 and part of her bashfulness arose from a wish to take from those around her a sense of inferiority, a feeling which never crossed her mind. From the circumstances of her birth and education, Idris would have been better fitted for the formulae of ceremony, but the very ease which accompanied such actions with her, arising from habit, rendered them tedious. While, with every drawback, Padita evidently enjoyed her situation. She was too full of new ideas to feel much pain when we departed. She took an affection

Starting point is 04:10:41 at leave of us and promised to visit us soon, but she did not regret the circumstances that caused our separation. The spirits of Raymond were unbounded. He did not know what to do with his new got power. His head was full of plans. He had as yet decided on none, but he promised himself, his friends, and the world, that the era of his protectorship should be signalized by some act of surpassing glory. Thus we talked of them, and moralized, as with diminished numbers, we returned to Windsor Castle. We felt extreme delight at our escape from political turmoil, and sought our solitude with redoubled zest. We did not want for occupation,

Starting point is 04:11:29 but my eager disposition was now turned to the field of intellectual exertion only, and hard study I found to be an excellent medicine to allay a fever of spirit with which in indolence I should doubtless have been assailed. Padita had permitted us to take Clara back with us to Windsor, and she and my two lovely infants were perpetual sources of interest and amusement.

Starting point is 04:11:56 The only circumstance that disturbed our peace was the health of Adrian. It evidently declined without any symptom which could lead us to suspect his disease, unless, indeed, his brightened eyes, animated look, and flustering cheeks made us dread consumption. But he was without pain or fear. He betook himself to books with ardour, and reposed from study in the society he best loved, that of his sister and myself. Sometimes he went up to London to visit Raymond and watched the progress of events.

Starting point is 04:12:33 Clara often accompanied him in these excursions, partly that she might see her parents, partly because Adrian delighted in the pretle and intelligent looks of this lovely child. Meanwhile, all went on well in London. The new elections were finished, Parliament met, and Raymond was occupied in a thousand,

Starting point is 04:12:54 beneficial schemes, canals, aqueducts, bridges, stately buildings, and various edifices for public utility were entered upon. He was continuously surrounded by projectors and projects, which were to render England one scene of fertility and magnificence. The state of poverty was to be abolished, men were to be transported from place to place, almost with the same facility as the Princess Hussein, Ali and Ahmed in the Arabian Nights. The physical state of man would soon not yield to the beatitude of angels. Disease was to be banished, labour lightened of its heaviest burden. Nor did this seem extravagant.

Starting point is 04:13:38 The arts of life and the discoveries of science had augmented in a ratio which left all calculation behind. Food sprung up, so to say, spontaneously. machines existed to supply with facility every one of the population. An evil direction still survived, and men were not happy, not because they could not, but because they would not rouse themselves to vanquish self-raised obstacles. Raymond was to inspire them with his beneficial will, and the mechanism of society, once systemised according to faultless rules, would never again swerve into disorder.

Starting point is 04:14:17 for these hopes he abandoned his long-cherished ambition of being enregistered in the annals of nations as a successful warrior laying aside his sword peace and its enduring glories became his aim the title he coveted was that of the benefactor of his country among other works of art in which he was engaged he had projected the erection of a national gallery for statues and pictures he possessed many himself which he designed to present to the Republic, and, as the edifice was to be the great ornament of his protectorship, he was very fastidious in his choice of the plan on which it would be built. Hundreds were brought to him and rejected. He sent even to Italy and Greece for drawings, but as the design was to be characterized by originality,

Starting point is 04:15:11 as well as by perfect beauty, his endeavors were for a time without avail. At length a drawing came With an address where communications might be sent And no artist's name are fixed The design was new and elegant, but faulty So faulty That although drawn with the hand and eye of taste

Starting point is 04:15:33 It was evidently the work of one who was not an architect Raymond contemplated it with delight The more he gazed, the more pleased he was And yet the errors must multiplied under inspection. He wrote to the address given, desiring to see the draftsman, that such alterations might be made, as should be suggested in a consultation between him and the original conceiver. A Greek came, a middle-aged man, with some intelligence of manner, but with so commonplace of physiognomy that Raymond could scarcely believe that he was

Starting point is 04:16:10 the designer. He acknowledged that he was not an architect. but the idea of the building had struck him, though he had sent it without the smallest hope of its being accepted. He was a man of few words. Raymond questioned him, but his reserved answers soon made him turn from the man to the drawing. He pointed out the errors and the alterations that he wished to be made. He offered the Greek a pencil that he might correct the sketch on the spot.

Starting point is 04:16:40 This was refused by his visitor, who said that he perfectly understood and would work at it at home. At length, Raymond suffered him to depart. The next day he returned. The design had been redrawn, but many defects still remained, and several of the instructions given had been misunderstood. Come, said Raymond, I yielded to you yesterday, now comply with my request, take the pencil. The Greek took it, but he handled it in no artist-like way. At length, he said, I must confess to you, my lord, that I did not make this drawing. It is impossible for you to see the real designer.

Starting point is 04:17:22 Your instructions must pass through me. Condescend, therefore, to have patience with my ignorance, and to explain your wishes to me. In time, I am certain that you will be satisfied. Raymond questioned vainly. The mysterious Greek would say no more. Would an architect be permitted to see the artist? This was also refused.

Starting point is 04:17:44 Raymond repeated his instructions, and the visitor retired. Our friend resolved, however, not to be foiled in his wish. He suspected that unaccustomed poverty was the cause of the mystery, and that the artist was unwilling to be seen in the garb and abode of want. Raymond was only the more excited by this consideration to discover him, impelled by the interest he took in obscure talent. he therefore ordered a person skilled in such matters to follow the Greek next time he came and observe the house in which he should enter. His emissary obeyed and brought the desired intelligence.

Starting point is 04:18:27 He had traced the man to one of the most penurious streets in the metropolis. Raymond did not wonder that, thus situated, the artist had shrunk from notice, but he did not for this alter his resolve. on the same evening he went alone to the house named to him poverty dirt and squalid mystery characterized its appearance alas thought raymond i have much to do before england becomes a paradise he knocked the door was opened by a string from above the broken wretched staircase was immediately before him but no person appeared he knocked again vainly and then impatiently of further delay, he ascended the dark, creaking stairs. His main wish, more particularly now that he witnessed the abject dwelling of the artist, was to relieve one, possessed of talent, but depressed by want. He pictured to himself a youth, whose eyes sparkled with genius, whose person was attenuated

Starting point is 04:19:35 by famine. He half feared to displease him, but he trusted that his generous kindness would be administered so delicately as not to excite repulse. What human heart is shut to kindness, and though poverty, in its excess, might render the sufferer unapt to submit to the supposed degradation of a benefit, the zeal of the benefactor must at least relax him into thankfulness. These thoughts encouraged Raymond as he stood at the door of the highest room of the house. After trying vainly to enter the other apartments, He perceived, just within the threshold of this one, a pair of small Turkish slippers. The door was ajar, but all was silent within.

Starting point is 04:20:24 It was probable that the inmate was absent, but secure that he had found the right person, our adventurous protector was tempted to enter, to leave a purse on the table, and silently depart. In pursuance of this idea, he pushed the door open gently, but the room was in having. raiment had never visited the dwellings of want and the scene that now presented itself struck him to the heart the floor was sunk in many places the walls ragged and bare the ceiling weather stained a tattered bed stood in the corner there were but two chairs in the room and a rough broken table on which was a light in a tin candlestick yet in the midst of such drear and heart-sickening poverty there was an air of order and cleanliness that surprised him the thought was fleeting for his attention was instantly drawn towards the inhabitant of this wretched abode it was a female she sat at the table one small hand shaded her eyes from the candle the other held a pencil her looks were fixed on a drawing before her which raymond recognized as the design presented to him. Her whole appearance awakened his deepest interest. Her dark hair was braided and twined in thick knots, like the headdress of a Grecian statue. Her garb was mean, but her attitude

Starting point is 04:21:54 might have been selected as a model of grace. Raymond had a confused remembrance that he had seen such a form before. He walked across the room. She did not raise her eyes, merely asking in Romaic, who is there? A friend, replied Raymond in the same dialect. She looked up wondering, and he saw that it was Evadne Zahimi. Evadne, once the idol of Adrian's affections, and who, for the sake of her present visitor, had disdained the noble youth, and then, neglected by him she loved, with crushed hopes and a stinging sense of misery, had returned to her native Greece. What revelation of fortune could have brought her to England and housed her thus. Raymond recognized her, and his manner changed from polite beneficence to the warmest

Starting point is 04:22:50 protestations of kindness and sympathy. The sight of her, in her present situation, passed like an arrow into his soul. He sat by her, he took her hand, and said a thousand things which breathed the deepest spirit of compassion and affection. Evadne did not answer. Her large dark eyes were cast down. At length a tear glimmered on the lashes. Thus, she cried, kindness can do what no want, no misery ever affected. I weep. She shed indeed many tears. Her head sunk unconsciously on the shoulder of Raymond. He held her her hand. He kissed her sunken, tear-stained cheek. He told her that her sufferings were now over. No one possessed the art of consoling like Raymond. He did not reason or declaim, but his look

Starting point is 04:23:52 shone with sympathy. He brought pleasant images before the sufferer. His caresses excited no distrust, for they arose purely from the feeling which leads a mother to kiss her wounded child. a desire to demonstrate in every possible way the truth of his feelings and the keenness of his wish to pour balm into the lacerated mind of the unfortunate. As Evadne regained her composure, his manner became even gay. He sported with the idea of her poverty. Something told him that it was not its real evils that lay heavily at her heart, but the debasement and disgrace attendant of her. it. As he talked, he divested it of these, sometimes speaking of her fortitude with energetic praise. Then, alluding to her past state, he called her his princess in disguise. He made her warm offers of service. She was too much occupied by more engrossing thoughts, either to accept or reject

Starting point is 04:24:58 them. At length he left her, making a promise to repeat his visit the next day. He returned home, full of mingled feelings, of pain excited by Evadne's wretchedness, and pleasure at the prospect of relieving it. Some motive for which he did not account, even to himself, prevented him from relating his adventure to Padita. The next day he threw such disguise over his person as a cloak afforded, and revisited Evadne. As he went, he bought a basket of costly fruit. such as were natives of her own country, and throwing over these various beautiful flowers bore it himself to the miserable garret of his friend.

Starting point is 04:25:49 Behold, cried he, as he entered, What bird's food have I brought for my sparrow on the housetop? Evadne now related the tale of her misfortunes. Her father, though of high rank, had in the end dissipated his fortune and even destroyed his reputation and influence through a course of dissolute indulgence. His health was impaired beyond hope of cure, and it became his earnest wish before he died

Starting point is 04:26:20 to preserve his daughter from the poverty which would be the portion of her orphan's date. He therefore accepted for her and persuaded her to accede to a proposal of marriage from a wealthy Greek merchant settled at Constantinople. She quitted her native Greece, her father died, by degrees she was cut off from all the companions and ties of her youth. The war, which about a year before the present time had broken out between Greece and Turkey, brought about many reverses of fortune. Her husband became bankrupt, and then, in a tumult and threatened massacre on the part of the Turks, they were obliged to fly at midnight, and reached in an open boat, an English vessel under sail,

Starting point is 04:27:09 which brought them immediately to this island. The few jewels they had saved supported them a while. The whole strength of Ivadne's mind was exerted to support the failing spirits of her husband. Loss of property, hopelessness as to his future prospects, the inoccupation to which poverty condemned him, combined to reduce him to a state bordering on insanity. Five months after their arrival in England, he committed suicide. You will ask me, continued Avadne, what I have done since, why I have not applied for succour to the rich Greeks resident here, why I have not returned to my native country. My answer to these questions must needs appear to you, unsatisfactory. yet they have sufficed to lead me on day after day, enduring every wretchedness, rather than by such means to seek relief.

Starting point is 04:28:12 Shall the daughter of the noble, though prodigal Zahimi, appear a beggar before her compeers or inferiors, superiors she had none? Shall I bow my head before them, and with servile gesture sell my nobility for life? Had I a child, or any tie to bind me to existence, I might descend to this, but, as it is, the world has been to me a harsh stepmother. Fain would I leave the abode she seems to grudge, and in the grave forget my pride, my struggles, my despair. The time will soon come. Grief and famine have already sapped the foundations of my being. A very short time, and I shall have passed away.

Starting point is 04:28:57 unstained by the crime of self-destruction unstung by the memory of degradation my spirit will throw aside the miserable coil and find such recompense as fortitude and resignation may deserve this may seem madness to you yet you also have pride and resolution do not then wonder that my pride is tameless my resolution unalterable having thus finished her tale and given such an account as she deemed fit of the motives of her abstaining from all endeavour to obtain aid from her countryman evadne paused yet she seemed to have more to say to which she was unable to give words In the meantime, Raymond was eloquent. His desire of restoring his lovely friend to her rank in society, and to her lost prosperity, animated him, and he poured forth with energy all his wishes and intentions on that subject. But he was checked. Evadne exacted a promise that he should conceal from all her friends her existence in England. the relatives of the earl of windsor said she haughtily doubtless think that i injured him perhaps the earl himself would be the first to acquit me but probably i do not deserve acquittal i acted then as i ever must from impulse this abode of penury may at least prove the disinterestedness of my conduct no matter i do not wish to plead my cause before any of them not even before your love lordship had you not first discovered me. The tenor of my actions will prove that I had rather

Starting point is 04:30:45 die than be a mark for scorn. Behold the proud Evadne and her tatters, look on the beggar princess. There is Aspic venom in the thought. Promise me that my secret shall not be violated by you. Raymond promised, but then a new discussion ensued. Evadne required another engagement on his part, that he would not, without her concurrence, enter into any project for her benefit, nor himself offer relief. Do not degrade me in my own eyes, she said. Poverty has long been my nurse. Hard visaged she is, but honest. If dishonour, or what I conceive to be dishonour, come near me, I am lost. Raymond adduced many arguments and fervent persuasions to overcome her feeling, but she remained unconvinced, and agitated by the discussion, she wildly and passionately

Starting point is 04:31:45 made a solemn vow to fly and hide herself where he could never discover her, where famine would soon bring death to conclude her woes, if he persisted in his to her disgracing offers. She could support herself, she said, and then she shoot him how, by executing various designs and paintings, she earned a pittance for her support. Raymond yielded for the present. He felt assured, after he had for a while, humoured herself will, that in the end friendship and reason would gain the day. But the feelings that actuated Evadne were rooted in the depths of her being, and were such in their growth as he had no means of understanding. Evadne loved Raymond. He was the hero of her imagination, the image carved by love in the unchanged texture of her heart.

Starting point is 04:32:44 Seven years ago, in her youthful prime, she had become attached to him. He had served her country against the Turks. He had, in her own land, acquired that military glory to fight for their security. Yet when he returned thence, and first appeared in public life in England, her love did not purchase his, which then vacillated between Padita and a crown. While he was yet undecided, she had quitted England, the news of his marriage reached her, and her hopes, poorly nurtured blossoms, withered and fell. The glory of life was gone for her.

Starting point is 04:33:25 The rosy at the halo of love, which had imbued every object with its own colour, faded. She was content to take life as it was, and to make the best of leaden-coloured reality. She married, and, carrying her restless energy of character with her into new scenes, she turned her thoughts to ambition, and aimed at the title and power of Princess of Wallachia, while her patriotic feelings were soothed by the idea of the good she might do her country, when her husband should be chief of this principality.

Starting point is 04:34:01 She lived to find ambition As unreal a delusion as love Her intrigues with Russia For the furtherance of her object Excited the jealousy of the port And the animosity of the Greek government She was considered a traitor by both The ruin of her husband followed

Starting point is 04:34:22 They avoided death by a timely flight And she fell from the height of her desires To penury in England Much of this tale should she concealed from Raymond, nor did she confess, that repulse and denial, as to a criminal convicted of the worst of crimes, that of bringing the scythe of foreign despotism to cut away the new springing liberties of her country would have followed her application to any among the Greeks. She knew that she was the cause of her husband's utter ruin, and she strung herself

Starting point is 04:34:59 to bear the consequences. The reproaches which agony extorted, or worse, cureless, uncomplaining depression, when his mind was sunk in a torpor, not the less painful because it was silent and moveless. She reproached herself with the crime of his death. Guilt and its punishments appeared to surround her. In vain she endeavored to allay remorse

Starting point is 04:35:24 by the memory of her real integrity, the rest of the world, and she among them judged of her actions by their consequences she prayed for her husband's soul she conjured the supreme to place on her head the crime of his self-destruction she vowed to live to expiate his fault in the midst of such wretchedness as must soon have destroyed her one thought only was a matter of consolation she lived in the same country breathed the same heir as Raymond. His name as protector was the burthen of every tongue. His achievements, projects, and magnificence, the argument of every story. Nothing is so precious to a woman's heart as the glory and excellence of him she loves. Thus in every horror, Evadne reveled in his fame and prosperity. While her husband lived, this feeling was regarded by her as a crime, repressed,

Starting point is 04:36:29 repented of. When he died, the tide of love resumed its ancient flow. It deluged her soul with its tumultuous waves, and she gave herself up a prey to its uncontrollable power. But never, oh never, should he see her in her degraded state. Never should he behold her fallen, as she deemed, from her pride of beauty, the poverty-stricken inhabitant of a garret, with a name which had become a rebrand, approach and a weight of guilt on her soul. But though impenetrably failed from him, his public office permitted her to become acquainted with all his actions, his daily course of life, even his conversation. She allowed herself one luxury, she saw the newspapers every day, and feasted on the

Starting point is 04:37:23 praise and actions of the protector. Not that this indulgence was devoid of a company in grief. Perdita's name was forever joined with his. Their conjugal felicity was celebrated even by the authentic testimony of facts. They were continually together. Nor could the unfortunate Evadne read the monosyllable that designated his name, without, at the same time, being presented with the image of her, who was the faithful companion of all his labours and pleasures. They, their excellencies, met her,

Starting point is 04:37:59 eyes in each line, mingling an evil potion that poisoned her very blood. It was in the newspaper that she saw the advertisement for the design for a national gallery. Combining with taste her remembrance of the edifices which she had seen in the east, and by an effort of genius, enduring them with unity of design, she executed the plan which had been sent to the protector. She triumphed in the idea of bestowing, unknown and forgotten as she was, a benefit upon him she loved, and with enthusiastic pride, looked forward to the accomplishment of a work of hers, which, immortalized in stone, would go down to posterity stamped with the name of Raymond. She awaited with eagerness the return of her messenger from the palace.

Starting point is 04:38:52 She listened in satiate to his account of each word, each look of the protector, She felt bliss in this communication with her beloved, although he knew not to whom he addressed his instructions. The drawing itself became ineffably dear to her. He had seen it and praised it. It was again retouched by her. Each stroke of her pencil was as a chord of thrilling music, and bore to her the idea of a temple raised to celebrate the deepest and most unutterable emotions of her soul. These contemplations engaged her When the voice of Raymond first struck her ear A voice once heard never to be forgotten

Starting point is 04:39:34 She mastered her gush of feelings And welcomed him with quiet gentleness Pride and tenderness now struggled And at length made a compromise together She would see Raymond Since destiny had led him to her And her constancy and devotion must merit his friendship but her rights with regard to him and her cherished independence should not be injured by the idea of interest or the intervention of the complicated feelings attendant on pecuniary obligation and the relative situations of the benefactor and benefited her mind was of uncommon strength she could subdue her sensible wants to her mental wishes and suffer cold hunger and misery rather than concede to fortune a contestant.

Starting point is 04:40:23 point. Alas that in human nature such a pitch of mental discipline and disdainful negligence of nature itself should not have been allied to the extreme of moral excellence. But the resolution that permitted her to resist the pains of privation sprung from this too great energy of her passions, and the concentrated self-will, of which this was a sign, was destined to destroy even the very idle to preserve. whose respect she submitted to this detail of wretchedness. Their intercourse continued. By degrees, Evadne related to her friend the whole of her story,

Starting point is 04:41:06 the stain her name had received in Greece, the weight of sin which had accrued to her from the death of her husband. When Raymond offered to clear her reputation and demonstrate to the world her real patriotism, she declared that it was only through her present sufferings that she hoped for any relief to the stings of conscience, that, in her state of mind, diseased as he might think it, the necessity of occupation was salutary medicine. She ended by extorting a promise that, for the space of one month,

Starting point is 04:41:39 he would refrain from the discussion of her interests, engaging after that time to yield in part to his wishes. She could not disguise to herself that any change would separate her from him. now she saw him each day his connection with adrian and pedita was never mentioned he was to her a meteor a companionless star which at its appointed hour rose in her hemisphere whose appearance brought felicity and which although its set was never eclipsed he came each day to her abode of penury and his presence transformed it to a temple redoled with sweets, radiant with heaven's own light. He partook of her delirium. They built a wall between them and the world.

Starting point is 04:42:32 Without a thousand harpies raved, remorse and misery, expecting the destined moment for their invasion. Within was the peace, as of innocence, reckless blindness, deluding joy, hope, whose still anchor rested on placid but unconsent water. thus while raymond had been wrapped in visions of power and fame while he looked forward to entire dominion over the elements and the mind of man the territory of his own heart escaped his notice and from that unthought of source arose the mighty torrent that overwhelmed his will and carried to the oblivious sea fame hope and happiness end of volume one chapter seven recording by for Philip Willits.

Starting point is 04:44:05 the first months of his protectorate, Raymond and she had been inseparable. Each project was discussed with her, each plan approved by her. I never beheld anyone so perfectly happy as my sweet sister. Her expressive eyes were two stars whose beams were love. Hope and light-heartedness sat on her cloudless brow. She fed even to tears of joy on the praise and glory of her lord. her whole existence was one sacrifice to him, and if, in the humility of her heart, she felt self-complacency,

Starting point is 04:44:42 it arose from the reflection that she had won the distinguished hero of the age, and had for years preserved him, even after time had taken from love its usual nourishment. Her own feeling was as entire as at its birth. Five years had failed to destroy the dazzling unreality of passion. Most men ruthlessly destroy the sacred veil With which a female heart Is wont to adorn the idol of its affections

Starting point is 04:45:12 Not so Raymond He was an enchanter Whose reign was forever and diminished A king whose power never was suspended Follow him through the details of common life Still the same charm of grace and majesty adorned him Nor could he be despoiled of the innate deification with which nature had invested him.

Starting point is 04:45:36 Petita grew in beauty and excellence under his eye. I no longer recognised my reserved, abstracted sister in the fascinating and open-hearted wife of Raymond. The genius that enlightened her countenance was now united to an expression of benevolence which gave divine perfection to her beauty. Happiness is, in its highest degree, the sister of goodness. suffering and amiability may exist together

Starting point is 04:46:04 and writers have loved to depict their conjunction there is a human and touching harmony in the picture but perfect happiness is an attribute of angels and those who possess it appear angelic fear has been said to be the parent of religion even if that religion is it the generator which leads its votaries to sacrifice human victims at its altars

Starting point is 04:46:27 but the religion which springs from happiness is a lovelier growth, the religion which makes the heart breathe forth fervent thanksgiving and causes us to pour out the overflowing of the soul before the author of our being. That which is the parent of the imagination and the nurse of poetry,

Starting point is 04:46:47 that which bestows benevolent intelligence on the visible mechanism of the world and makes earth a temple with heaven for its cope. Such happiness, goodness and religion inhabited the mind of Pardita. During the five years we had spent together a knot of happy human beings at Windsor Castle, a blissful lot had been the frequent theme

Starting point is 04:47:10 of my sister's conversation. From early habit and natural affection, she selected me in preference to Adrian or Idris to be the partner in her overflows of delight. Perhaps, though apparently much unlike, some secret point of resemblance, the offspring of consanguinity induced his preference.

Starting point is 04:47:32 Often at sunset I have walked with her in the sober, in-shadowed forest paths and listened with joyful sympathy. Security gave dignity to her passion, the certainty of a full return left her with no wish unfulfilled. The birth of her daughter, Envi-O copy of her Raymond,

Starting point is 04:47:52 filled up the measure of her content and produced a sacred and indissoluble tie between them. sometimes she felt proud that he had preferred her to the hopes of a crown sometimes she remembered that she had suffered keen anguish when he hesitated in his choice but this memory of past discontent only served to enhance her present joy what had been hardly run was now entirely possessed doubly dear she would look at him at a distance with the same rapture o far more exuberant rapture that one might feel who after the pebble of a tempest should find himself in the desired port, she would hasten towards him to feel more certain in his arms, the reality of her bliss. This warmth of affection added to the depth of her understanding, and the brilliancy of her imagination made her beyond words dear to Raymond.

Starting point is 04:48:48 If a feeling of dissatisfaction ever crossed her, it arose from the idea that he was not perfectly happy. Desire of renown and presumptuous ambition. had characterized his youth. The one he had acquired in Greece, the other he had sacrificed to love. His intellect found sufficient field for exercise in his domestic circle, whose members all adorned by refinement and literature,

Starting point is 04:49:14 were many of them, like himself, distinguished by genius. Yet active life was the genuine soil for his virtues, and he sometimes suffered tedium from the monotonous succession of events in our retirement. pride made him recoil from complaint, and gratitude and affection to Padita generally acted as an opiate to all desire, save that of Mirate in her love. We all observed the visitation of these feelings, and none regretted them so much as Padita.

Starting point is 04:49:46 Her life consecrated to him was a slight sacrifice to reward his choice, but was not that sufficient. Did he need any gratification that she was unable to bestow? This was the only cloud in the azure of her happiness. His passage to power had been full of pain to both. He, however, attained his wish. He filled the situation for which nature seemed to have moulded him. His activity was fed in wholesome measure without either exhaustion or satiety. His taste and genius found worthy expression in each of the modes

Starting point is 04:50:23 human beings have invented to encage and manifest the spirit of beauty. The goodness of his heart made him never weary of conducing to the well-being of his fellow creatures. His magnificent spirit and aspirations for the respect and love of mankind now received fruition.

Starting point is 04:50:41 True, his exaltation was temporary. Perhaps it were better that it should be so. Habit would not dull his sense of the enjoyment of power, nor struggles, disappointment, and defeat await the end of that

Starting point is 04:50:55 which would expire at its maturity. He determined to extract and condense all of glory, power and achievement, which might have resulted from the long reign into the three years of his protectorate. Raymond was eminently social. All that he now enjoyed would have been devoid of pleasure to him had it been unparticipated. But in Padita, he possessed all that his heart could desire. Her love gave birth to sympathy. Her intelligence made her understand him at a word.

Starting point is 04:51:26 her powers of intellect enabled her to assist and guide him. He felt her worth. During the early years of their union, the inequality of her temper, and yet unsubdued self-will which tarnished her character, had been a slight drawback to the fullness of his sentiment. Now that unchanged serenity and gentle compliance were added to her other qualifications, his respect equaled his love.

Starting point is 04:51:55 Years added to the strictness. of their union. They did not now guess at and totter on the pathway, divining the mode to please, hoping yet fearing the continuance of bliss. Five years gave a sober certainty to their emotions, though it did not rob them of their ethereal nature. It had given them a child, but it had not detracted from the personal attractions of my sister. Timmidity, which in her had almost amounted to awkwardness, was exchanged through a graceful decision of manner. Frankness, instead of preserve, characterized her physiognomy, and her voice was attuned to thrilling softness. She was now three and twenty, in the pride of womanhood,

Starting point is 04:52:39 fulfilling the precious duties of wife and mother, possessed of all her heart had ever coveted. Raymond was ten years older, to his previous beauty, noble mean and commanding aspect, he now added gentlest benevolence, winning tenderness, graceful. and unwearied attention to the wishes of another. The first secret that had existed between them was the visits of Raymond to Ivadne. He had been struck by the faultitude and beauty of the ill-fated Greek,

Starting point is 04:53:12 and when her constant tenderness toward him unfolded itself, he asked with astonishment by what act of his he had merited this passionate and unrequited love. She was for a while the sole object of his reverendous. and Badeeta became aware that his thoughts and time were bestowed on a subject unparticipated by her. My sister was by nature destitute of the common feelings of anxious, petulant jealousy. The treasure which she possessed in the affections of Raymond was more necessary to her being than the lifeblood that animated her veins.

Starting point is 04:53:49 More truly than Othello, she might say, to be once in doubt is once to be resolved. On the present occasion she did not suspect any alienation of affection, but she conjected that some circumstance, connected with its high place, had occasioned this mystery. She was startled and pained. She began to count the long days and months and years which must elapse before he would be restored to a private station

Starting point is 04:54:18 and unreservedly to her. She was not content that even for a time he should practice concealment with her. she often repined but her trust in the singleness of his affection was undisturbed and when they were together unchecked by fear she opened her heart to the fullest delight time went on raymond stopping midway on his wild career paused suddenly to think of consequences two results presented themselves in the view he took of the future that his intercourse with evadne should continue a secret or that finally was that finally Finally, it should be discovered by Padeta. The destitute condition and highly wrought feelings of his friend prevented him from averting to the possibility of exiling himself from her. In the first event, he had bidden an eternal farewell to open-hearted converse

Starting point is 04:55:14 and entire sympathy with the companion of his life. The veil must be thicker than that invented by Turkish jealousy. The wall higher than the unscalable tower of Vathek, which should conceal from her the workings of his heart, and hide from her view, the secret of his actions. This idea was intolerably painful to him. Frankness and social feelings were the essence of Raymond's nature. Without them, his qualities became commonplace.

Starting point is 04:55:45 Without these to spread glory over his intercourse with Padita, his vaunted exchange of a throne for her love was as weak and empty as the rainbow hues which vanished where. the sun is down. But there was no remedy. Genius, devotion and courage, the adornments of his mind, and the energies of his soul,

Starting point is 04:56:06 all exerted to their uttermost stretch, could not roll back one hair's breadth, the Wheel of Time's chariot. That which has been was written with the adamantime pen of reality on the everlasting volume of the past. Nor could agony and tears suffice to wash out one iota,

Starting point is 04:56:25 from the act fulfilled. But this was the best side of the question. What if circumstance should lead Padita to suspect, and suspecting to be resolved? The fibres of his frame became relaxed, and cold dew stood on his forehead at this idea. Many men may scoff at this dread, but he read the future,

Starting point is 04:56:49 and the peace of Padita was too dear to him, a speechless agony too certain, and too fearful not to unman him. His course was speedily decided upon. If the worst befell, if she learnt the truth, he would neither stand her reproaches or the anguish of her altered looks. He would forsake her. England, his friends, the scenes of his youth,

Starting point is 04:57:14 the hopes of coming time, he would seek another country. And in other sins begin life again. Having resolved on this, he became calmer. He endeavoured to guide with prudence the steeds of destiny To the devious road which he had chosen And bent all his efforts the better to conceal what he could not alter The perfect confidence that subsisted between Padita and him Rended every communication common between them

Starting point is 04:57:41 They opened each other's letters Even as, until now, the inmost folds of the heart of each was disclosed to the other A letter came unawares Perdita read it Had it contained confirmation, she must have been annihilated. As it was, trembling, cold and pale, she sought Raymond. He was alone, examining some petitions lately presented. She entered silently, sat on a sofa opposite to him,

Starting point is 04:58:11 and gazed on him with a look of such despair that wild shrieks and dire moans would have been tame exhibitions of misery compared to the living incarnation of the thing itself exhibited by her. At first he did not take his eyes from the papers. When he raised them, he was struck by the wretchedness manifest on her altered cheek. For a moment he forgot his own acts and fears, and asked with consternation, "'Dearest girl, what is the matter? What has happened?'

Starting point is 04:58:44 "'Nothing,' she replied at first. "'And yet not so,' she continued, hurrying on in her speech. You have secrets, Roman. Where have you been lately? Whom have you seen? What do you conceal from me? Why am I banished from your confidence?

Starting point is 04:59:02 Yet this is not it. I do not intend to entrap you with questions. One will suffice. Am I completely a wretch? With trembling hand she gave him the paper and sat white and motionless looking at him while he read it. He recognised the handwriting of Iradne, and the cullum mounted in his cheeks.

Starting point is 04:59:24 With lightning speed, he conceived the contents of the letter. All was now cast on one die. Falsehood and artifice were trifles in comparison with the impending ruin. He would either entirely dispel Perdita's suspicions, or quit her forever. My dear girl, he said, I have been to blame, but you must pardon me. I was in the wrong to commence a system of concealment, but I did it for the sake of sparing new pain, and each day has rendered it more difficult for me to alter my plan.

Starting point is 05:00:00 Besides, I was instigated by delicacy towards the unhappy writer of these few lines. Padita gasped, Well, she cried, we'll go on. That is all. This paper tells all. I am placed in the most difficult circumstances. I have done my best, though perhaps I have done wrong. My love for you is inviolate.

Starting point is 05:00:24 Petita shook her head doubtingly. It cannot be, she cried. I know that it is not. You will deceive me, but I will not be deceived. I have lost you, myself, my life. Do you not believe me, said Raymond Haltily. To believe you, she exclaimed, I would give up all, and expire with joy, so that in death,

Starting point is 05:00:46 I could feel that you were true, but that cannot be. Padita, continued Raymond, you do not see the precipice on which you stand. You may believe that I did not enter on my present line of conduct without reluctance and pain. I knew that it was possible that your suspicions might be excited, but I trusted that my simple word would cause them to disappear. I built my hope on your confidence. Do you think that I will be questioned, and my reason, replies disdainfully set aside. Do you think that I will be suspected, perhaps watched,

Starting point is 05:01:23 cross-questioned and disbelieved? I am not yet fallen so low. My honour is not yet so tarnished. You have loved me. I adored you. But all human sentiments come to an end. Let our affection expire, but let it not be exchanged for distrust and recrimination. Herefore we have been friends, lovers, let us not become enemies, mutual spies. I cannot live the object of suspicion. You cannot believe me, let us part. Exactly so, cried Padeta. I knew that it would come to this. Are we not already parted? Does not a stream boundless as ocean, deep as vacuum, yawned between us? Raymond rose, his voice was broken, his features convulsed, his manner calm as the earthquake cradling atmosphere, he replied,

Starting point is 05:02:16 I am rejoiced that you take my decision so philosophically. Doubtless you will play the part of the injured wife to admiration. Sometimes you may be stung with the feeling that you have wronged me, but the condolence of your relatives, the pity of the world, the complacency which the consciousness of your own immaculate innocence will bestow, will be excellent balm. Me, you will never see more. Raymond moved towards the door.

Starting point is 05:02:43 He forgot that each word he spoke was false. He personated his assumption of innocence, even to self-deception. Have not act as wept, as they portrayed imagined passion. A more intense feeling of the reality of fiction possessed Raymond. He spoke with pride, he felt injured. Padita looked up, she saw his angry glance, his hand was in the lock of the door, She started up, she threw herself on his neck, she gasped and sobbed, he took her hand, and leading her to the sofa, sat down near her. Her head fell on his shoulder, she trembled. Alternate changes of fire and ice ran through her limbs, observing her emotion, he spoke with softened accents. The blow is given. I will not part from you in anger. I owe you too much. I owe you six years of a unallayed happiness, but they are past. I will not live in the mark of suspicion, the object of

Starting point is 05:03:46 jealousy, I love you too well. In an eternal separation, only can either of us hope for dignity and propriety of action. We shall not then be degraded from our true characters. Faith and devotion have hitherto been the essence of her intercourse. These lost, let us not cling to the seedless husk of life, the uncernaled shell. You have your child, your brother, Idris, Adrian. And you, cried Padita, the writer of that letter. Uncontrollable indignation flashed from the eyes of Raymond. He knew that this accusation at least was false.

Starting point is 05:04:26 Entertain this belief, he cried. Hug it to your heart, make it a pillow to your head, an opiate for your eyes. I am content, but by the God that made me, hell is not more false than the word you have spoken. Pardita was struck by the impassioned seriousness of his asseverations. She replied with earnestness, I do not refuse to believe you, Raymond.

Starting point is 05:04:52 On the contrary, I promise to put implicit faith in your simple word. Only assure me that your love and faith towards me have never been violated, and suspicion and doubt and jealousy will at once be dispersed. we shall continue as we have ever done, one heart, one hope, one life. I have already assured you of my fidelity, said Raymond, with disdainful coldness. Triple assertions will avail nothing, where one is despised. I will say no more, for I can add nothing to what I have already said, to what you before contemptuously set aside.

Starting point is 05:05:30 This contention is unworthy of both of us, and I confess that I am weary of replying to charges at once unfounded and unkind. Padita tried to read his countenance, which he angrily averted. There was so much of truth and nature in his resentment that her doubts were dispelled. Her countenance which for years had not expressed a feeling unallied to affection, became again radiant and satisfied. She found it, however, no easy task to soften and reconcile Raymond. At first he refused to stay.

Starting point is 05:06:04 to hear her, but she would not be put off, secure of his unaltered love, she was willing to undertake any labour, use any entreaty, to dispel his anger. She obtained a hearing, he sat in haughty silence, but he listened. She first assured him of her boundless confidence, of this he must be conscious, since but for that she would not seek to detain him. She enumerated their years of happiness. She brought before him past scenes of intimacy and happiness. She pictured their future life. She mentioned their child. Tears unbidden now filled her eyes. She tried to disperse them, but they refused to be checked. Her utterance was choked. She had not wept before. Raymond could not resist these signs of distress. He felt perhaps somewhat ashamed

Starting point is 05:07:01 under the part he acted of the injured man, he who was in truth, the injurer. And then he devoutly loved Padita, the bend of her head, her glossy ringlets, the turn of her form, were to him subjects of deep tenderness and admiration. As she spoke,

Starting point is 05:07:20 her melodious tones entered his soul. He soon softened toward her, comforting and caressing her, and endeavouring to cheat himself into the belief that he had never wronged her. Raymond staggered forth from this scene, as a man might do, who had been just put to the torture, and looked forward to when it would be again inflicted. He had sinned against his own honour by affirming, swearing to a direct falsehood. True, this he had palmed on a woman, and it might therefore be deemed less base by others, not by him, for whom had he deceived, his own trusting devoted, a woman. affectionate Padeta, whose generous belief called him doubly, when he remembered the parade of innocence with which it had been exacted. The mind of Raymond was not so rough cast, nor had been so rudely

Starting point is 05:08:14 handled in the circumstance of life as to make him proof to these considerations. On the contrary, he was all nerve, his spirit was as a pure fire which fades and shrinks from heavy contagion of foul atmosphere, but now the contagion had become incorporated with its essence and the change was the more painful. Truth and falsehood, love and hate lost their eternal boundaries. Heaven had rushed into mingle with hell, while his sensitive mind turned to a field for such battle was stung to madness. He heartily despised himself. He was angry with Padita, and the idea of Ivadne was attended by all that was hideous and cruel. His passions, always his masters,

Starting point is 05:09:03 acquired fresh strength from the long sweep in which love had cradled them. The clinging weight of destiny bent him down. He was goaded, tortured, fiercely impatient of that worst of miseries, the sense of remorse. This troubled state yielded by degrees to sullen animosity and depression of spirits.

Starting point is 05:09:25 His dependence, even his equals, if in his present post he had any, were started to find anger, derision, and bitterness in one before distinguished for suavity and benevolence of manner. He transacted public business with distaste, and hastened from it to the solitude, which was at once his bane and relief. He mounted a fiery horse, that which had borne him forward to victory in Greece. He fatigued himself with deadening exercise, losing the pangs of a troubled mind in animal sensation. He slowly recovered himself,

Starting point is 05:10:03 yet at last, as one mite from the effects of poison, he lifted his head from above the vapours of fever and passion into the still atmosphere of calm reflection. He meditated on what was best to be done. He was first struck by the space of time that had elapsed since madness rather than any reasonable impulse had regulated his actions.

Starting point is 05:10:28 A month had gone by and during that time he had not seen Evadne. Her power, which was linked to a few of the enduring emotions of his heart, had greatly decayed. He was no longer her slave,

Starting point is 05:10:43 no longer her lover. He would never see her more and by the completeness of his return deserved the confidence of Padita. yet as he thus determined fancy conjured up the miserable abode of the greek girl an abode which from noble and lofty principal she had refused to exchange for one of greater luxury he thought of the splendour of her situation and appearance when he first knew her he thought of her life at constantinople attended by every circumstance of oriental magnificence of her present penury her death daily task of industry, her lawn state, her faded famine-struck cheek. Compassion swelled his breast. He would see her once again. He would devise some plan for

Starting point is 05:11:33 restoring her to society and the enjoyment of her rank. Their separation would then follow, as a matter of course. Again, he thought, how during this long month he had avoided Pidita, flying from her as from the stings of his own conscience. But he was away. now, all this should be remedied, and future devotion erased the memory of this only blot on the serenity of their life. He became cheerful as he thought of this, and soberly and resolutely marked out the line of conduct he would adopt. He remembered that he had promised Padita to be present this very evening, the 19th of October, anniversary of his election as protector, at a festival given in his honour. Good augury should this festival be of the happiness of future years.

Starting point is 05:12:25 First he would look in on Evadne, he would not stay, but he owed her some account, some compensation for his long and unannounced absence, and then to Padita, to the forgotten world, to the duties of society, the splendour of rank, the enjoyment of power. After this scene sketched in the preceding pages, Piedita had contemplated an entire change in the manners and conduct of Raymond. She expected freedom of communication and returned to those habits of affectionate intercourse which had formed the delight of her life. But Raymond did not join her in any of her avocations.

Starting point is 05:13:06 He transacted the business of the day apart from her. He went out. She knew not with her. The pain inflicted by this disappointment was tormenting, keen. She looked on it as a deceitful dream and tried to throw off the consciousness of it, but like the shirt of Nessus, it clung to her very flesh, Annette with sharp agony, into her vital principle. She possessed that, though such an assertion may appear a paradox, which belongs to few, a capacity of happiness. Her delicate organisation and creative imagination rendered her peculiarly susceptible of pleasurable emotion.

Starting point is 05:13:50 The overflowing warmth of her heart, by making love a plant of deep root and stately growth, had attuned her whole soul to the reception of happiness, when she found in Raymond all that could adorn love and satisfy her imagination. But if the sentiment on which the fabric of her existence was founded became commonplace through participation, the endless succession of attention,

Starting point is 05:14:14 and graceful actions snapped by transfer, his universe of love rested from her, happiness must depart, and then be exchanged for its opposite. The same peculiarities of character rendered her sorrow's agonies. Her fancy magnified them. Her sensibility made her forever open to their renewed impression. Love envenomed the heart-piercing sting. There was no either submission, patience, nor self-abandonment in her grief. She fought with it, struggled beneath it, and rendered every pang more sharp by resistance. Again and again, the idea recurred that he loved another. She did him justice, she believed that he felt a tender affection for her,

Starting point is 05:15:04 but give a paltry prize to him, who in some life-pending lottery has calculated on the possession of tens of thousands, and it will disappoint him more than a blank. The affection, an amity of a Raymond, might be inestimable, but beyond that affection, embozom deeper than friendship, was the indivisible treasure of love. Take the sum in its completeness, and no arithmetic can calculate its price,

Starting point is 05:15:34 take from it the smallest portion, give it by the name of parts, separate it into degrees and sections, and like the magician's coin, the valueless gold of the mine is turned to vilest substance. There is a meaning in the eye of love, a cadence in its voice,

Starting point is 05:15:53 an irradiation in its smile, the talisman of whose enchantments one can only possess. Its spirit is elemental, its essence single, its divinity, a unit. The very heart and soul of Raymond and Padeta, had mingled, even as two mountain brooks that join in their descent and murmuring and sparkling

Starting point is 05:16:18 flow over shining pebbles beside starry flowers, but let one desert its primal course or be damned up by choking obstruction and the other shrinks in its altered banks. Padita was sensible of the failing of the tide that fed her life. Unable to support the slow withering of her hopes, she suddenly thought. a plan, reserved and to terminate at once the period of misery, and to bring to unhappy conclusion the late disastrous events. The anniversary was at hand of the exhalation of Raymond to the Office of Protector, and it was customary to celebrate this day by a splendid festival. A variety of feelings urged Padita to shed double magnificence over the scene,

Starting point is 05:17:08 yet as she arrayed herself for the evening gala, she wondered her at her own. herself at the pain she took to render sumptuous the celebration of an event which appeared to her the beginning of her sufferings woe before the day she thought woe tears and mourning betide the hour that gave raymond another hope than love another wish than my devotion and thrice joyful the moment when he shall be restored to me god knows i put my trust in his vows and believe his asserted faith but for that I would not seek what I am now resolved to attain. Shall two years more be thus passed, each day adding to our alienation, each act being another stone piled on the barrier which separates us? No, my Raymond, my only beloved, sole possession of Padita. This night, this splendid assembly, these sumptuous apartments, and this adornment of your tearful girl,

Starting point is 05:18:10 are all united to celebrate your abdication. Once, for me, you relinquished the prospect of a crown. That was in days of early love, when I could only hold out the hope, not the assurance of happiness. Now you have the experience of all that I can give, the heart's devotion, taintless love, and unhesitating subjection to you.

Starting point is 05:18:37 You must choose between these and your protectorate, This, proud noble, is your last night. Padita has bestowed on it all of magnificent and dazzling that your heart best loves, but from these gorgeous rooms, from this princely attendance, from power and elevation, you must return with to-morrow's son to her rural abode, for I would not buy an immortality of joy, by the endurance of one more week's sister to the last. brooding over this plan

Starting point is 05:19:10 resolved when the hour should come to propose and insist upon its accomplishment secure of his consent the heart of Baudita was lightened or rather exalted her cheek was flushed by the expectation of struggle her eyes sparkled with the hope of triumph

Starting point is 05:19:29 having cast her fate upon a die and feeling secure of winning she who may have named as bearing the stamp of Queen of Nations on her noble brow, now rose superior to humanity, and seemed in calm power to rest with her finger the wheel of destiny. She had never before looked so supremely lovely. We, the Arcadian Shepherds of the Tale,

Starting point is 05:19:56 had intended to be present at this festivity, but Padita wrote to entreat us not to come, or to absent herself from Windsor, for she, though she did not reveal her scheme to us, resolved the next morning to return with Raymond to our dear circle, there to renew a course of life in which she had found entire felicity. Late in the evening she entered the apartments appropriated to the festival. Raymond had quitted the palace the night before.

Starting point is 05:20:27 He had promised to grace the assembly, but he had not yet returned. Still she felt sure that he would come at last. last, and the wider the breach might appear at this crisis, the more secure she was of closing it forever. It was, as I said, the 19th of October. The autumn was far advanced and dreary. The wind held, the half-bear trees were despoiled of the remainder of their summer ornament. The state of the air which induced the decay of vegetation was hostile to cheerfulness, or hope. Raymond had been exalted by the determination he had made, but with the declining day his spirits declined.

Starting point is 05:21:10 First he was to visit Iradne, and then to hasten to the palace of the protectorate. As he walked through the wetted streets in the neighbourhood of the Lachlis Greeks' abode, his heart smote him for the whole course of his conduct towards her. First his having entered into any engagement that should permit her to remain in such a state, of degradation and then after a short wild dream having left her to drear solitude anxious conjector and bitter still disappointed expectation

Starting point is 05:21:43 what had she done the while how supported his absence and neglect light grew dim in his close streets and when the well-known door was opened the staircase was shrouded in perfect night he groped his way up he entered the garret he found evadne stretched speechless, almost lifeless, on her wretched bed. He called for the people of the house, but could learn nothing from them, except that they knew nothing. Her story was plain to him, plain and distinct as the remorse and horror that darted their fangs into him. When she found herself forsaken by him, she lost the heart to pursue her usual avocations. Pride forbade every application to him.

Starting point is 05:22:30 famine was welcomed as the kind porter to the gates of death within whose opening folds she should now without sin quickly repose no cretie came near her as her strength failed if she died where could there be found on record a murderer whose cruel act might compare with his what fiend more wanton in his mischief what damned soul more worthy of perdition but he was not reserved for this agony of self-reproach, he sent for medical assistance, the hours passed, spun by suspense into ages. The darkness of the long autumnal night yielded today before her life was secure. He had her then removed to a more commodious dwelling, and hovered about her again and again to assure himself that she was safe. In the midst of his greatest suspense and fear as to the event, he remembered the festival given in his honour by Padita. In his honour, then,

Starting point is 05:23:34 when misery and death were affixing indelible disgrace to his name, honour to him whose crimes deserved a scaffold. This was the worst mockery. Still, Padita would expect him. He wrote a few incoherent words on a scrap of paper, testifying that he was well, and bade the woman of the house,

Starting point is 05:23:56 take it to the palace, and deliver it into the hands of the wife of the Lord Prudette. protect her. The woman, who did not know him, contemptuously asked how he thought she should gain admittance, particularly on a festal night to that lady's presence. Raymond gave her his ring to ensure the respect of the menials. Thus, while Padita was entertaining her guests and anxiously awaiting the arrival of her lord, his ring was brought to her, and she was told that a poor woman had a note to deliver to her from its wearer. The vanity of the old gossip was raised by her commission,

Starting point is 05:24:34 which after all she did not understand, since she had no suspicion, even now that Evadne's visitor was Lord Raymond. Padita dreaded a fall from his horse or some similar accident, so the woman's answers woke other fears. From a feeling of cunning blindly exercised, eophysious, if not malignant messenger, did not speak of Adna's illness,

Starting point is 05:24:59 but she galleously gave an account of Raymond's frequent visits, adding to her narration, such circumstances as, while they convinced Padita of its truth, exaggerated the unkindness and perfidy of Raymond. Worst of all, his absence now from the festival, his message wholly unaccounted for, except by the disgraceful hints of the woman,

Starting point is 05:25:22 appeared the deadliest insult. Again, she looked at the last. the ring, it was a small ruby, almost heart-shaped, which she had herself given him. She looked at the handwriting, which she could not mistake, and repeated to herself the words, Do not, I charge you, I entreat you, permit your guests to wonder at my absence. The while the old crone going on with her talk filled her ear with a strange melody of truth and falsehood. At length, Padita dismissed her. the poor girl returned to the assembly where her presence had not been missed she glided into a recess somewhat obscured and leaning against an ornamental column there placed tried to recover herself her faculties were pausied

Starting point is 05:26:13 she gazed on some flowers that stood near in a carved vase that morning she had arranged them they were rare and lovely plants even now all aghast as she was she observed their brilliant colours and starry shapes divine infolations of the spirit of beauty she exclaimed ye droop not neither do ye mourn the despair that clasps my heart has not spread contagion over you Why am I not a partner of your insensibility, a sharer in your calm? She paused. To my task, she continued mentally. My guests must not perceive the reality, either as it regards him or me. I obey they shall not, though I die the moment they are gone. They shall behold the antipodes of what is real, for I will appear to live, while I am dead. It required all her self-command to suppress the gash of tears self-pity caused at this idea.

Starting point is 05:27:16 After many struggles she succeeded and turned to join the company. All her efforts were now directed to the dissembling of her internal conflict. She had to play the part of a courteous hostess, to attend to all, to shine, the focus of enjoyment and grace. She had to do this, while in deep woe, she sighed for loneliness and would gladly have exchanged her crowded rooms for dark forest depths, or a drear night in shadowed heath.

Starting point is 05:27:47 But she became gay, she could not keep in the medium, nor be, as was usual with her, placidly content. Everyone remarked her exhilarations of spirit as all actions appear graceful in the eye of rank. Her guests surrounded her applaudingly, although there was a sharpness in her laugh,

Starting point is 05:28:07 and an abruptness in her sallies which might have betrayed her secret to an attentive observer she went on feeling that if she had paused for a moment the checked waters of misery would have deluded her soul that her wrecked hopes would raise their wailing voices and that those who now echoed her mirth and provoked her repartees would have shrunk in fear from her convulsive despair her only consolation during the violence which she did herself was to watch the motions of an illuminated clock, and internally count the moments which must elapse before she could be alone. At length the rooms began to thin, mocking her own desires, she rallied her guests on their early departure. One by one they left her. At length she pressed the hand of her last visitor. How cold and damp your hand is, said her friend. You are over-fatigued. Pray hasten to rest. Petita smiled faintly. Her guest left her. The carriage rolling down the street assured the final departure.

Starting point is 05:29:15 Then, as if pursued by an enemy, as if wings had been at her feet, she flew to her own apartment. She dismissed her attendance, she locked the doors, she threw herself wildly on the floor, she bit her lips even to blood, to suppress her shrieks, and lay long a prey to the vulture of despair, striving not to think while multitudinous ideas made a home of her heart, and ideas horrid as furies, cruel as vipers, and poured in with such swift succession, that they seemed to jostle and wound each other, while they worked her up to madness.

Starting point is 05:29:53 At length she rose, more composed, not less miserable. She stood before a large mirror, she gazed on her reflected image, her light and graceful dress, the jewels that studded her hair and encircled her beauteous arms and neck her small feet shod in satin her profuse and glossy tresses all were to her clouded brow and woe-begone countenance like a gorgeous frame to a dark tempest portraying picture vars am i she thought vah's brimful of despair's direst essence farewell pedita forwell poor girl never again will you see yourself thus. Luxury and wealth

Starting point is 05:30:38 are no longer yours. In the excess of your poverty, you may envy the homeless beggar. Most truly am I without a home. I live on a barren desert, which wide and interminable brings forth neither fruit or flower.

Starting point is 05:30:54 In the midst is a solitary rock to which thou, Padita, are chained, and thou seest the dreary level stretch far away. to open her window, which looked on the palace garden. Light and darkness were struggling together, and the orient was streaked by rose-yat and golden rays. One star only trembled in the depth of the kindling atmosphere. The morning air blowing freshly over the dewy plants rushed into

Starting point is 05:31:23 the heated room. All things go on, thought Podita. All things proceed, decay and perish. When The noontide has passed, and the weary day has driven her team to their western stalls, the fires of heaven rise from the east, moving in their accustomed path, they ascend and descend the skyy hill. When their course is fulfilled, the dial begins to cast westward, an uncertain shadow. The eyelids of day are opened, and birds and flowers, the startled vegetation, and fresh breeze, awaken. The sun at length appears.

Starting point is 05:32:01 and in majestic procession climbs the capital of heaven all proceeds changes and dies except the sense of misery in my bursting heart ay all proceeds and changes what wonder then that love has journeyed on to its setting and that the lord of my life has changed we call the supernal lights fixed yet they wander about yonder plain and if i look again where i looked an hour ago the face of the eternal lights fixed yet they wander about yonder plain and if i look again where i looked an hour ago the face of the eternal eternal heavens is altered. The silly moon and inconstant planets vary nightly their erratic dance. The sun itself, sovereign of the sky, ever and anon deserts his throne, and leaves his dominions to night and winter. Nature grows old, and shakes in her decaying limbs. Creation has become bankrupt. What wonder, then, that eclipse and death have led to destruction the light of thy life, O Podita? of volume one chapter eight volume one chapter nine of the last man this is a librivox recording

Starting point is 05:33:21 all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by philippa willets the last man by mary waltz and craft shelley volume one chapter nine thus sad and disarranged with the thoughts of my poor sister when she became assured of the infidelity of Raymond. All her virtues and all her defects tended to make the blow incurable. Her affection for me, her brother, for Adrian and Idris, was subject as it were to the reigning passion of her heart. Even her maternal tenderness borrowed half its force from the delight she had in tracing Raymond's

Starting point is 05:34:05 features and expression in the infant's countenance. She had been reserved and even stern in childhood, but love had softened to her. But love had softened the asperities of her character, and her union with Raymond had caused her talents and affections to unfold themselves. The one betrayed, and the other lost, she in some degree returned to her ancient disposition. The concentrated pride of her nature, forgotten during her blissful dream, awoke, and with its adder's sting, pierced her heart. Her humility of spirit augmented the power of the venom. she had been exalted in her own estimation, while distinguished by his love. Of what worth was she, now that he thrust her from this preferment?

Starting point is 05:34:52 She had been proud of having won and preserved him, but another had won him from her, and her exultation was as cold as a water-quenched ember. We, in our retirement, remained long in ignorance of her misfortune. Soon after the festival she had sent for her child, and then she seemed to have forgotten us. Adrian observed a change during a visit that he afterward paid them, but he could not tell its extent or divine the cause.

Starting point is 05:35:23 They still appeared in public together and lived under the same roof. Raymond was, as usual, courteous, though there was, on occasions, an unbidden haughtiness or painful abruptness in his manners, which startled his gentle friend. His brow was not clouded, but distilled. sat on his lips and his voice was harsh. Perditor was all kindness and attention to her lord, but she was silent and beyond words sad. She had grown thin and pale,

Starting point is 05:35:54 and her eyes often filled with tears. Sometimes she looked at Raymond, as if to say, that it should be so. At others, her countenance expressed, I will still do all I can to make you happy. But Adrian read with uncertain aim the charactery of her face and might mistake. Clara was always with her, and she seemed most at ease, when, in an obscure corner, she could sit

Starting point is 05:36:21 holding her child's hand, silent and lonely. Still, Adrian was unable to guess the truth. He entreated them to visit us at Windsor, and they promised to come during the following month. It was May before they arrived. The season had decked the forest trees with leaves, and its path were the way. a thousand flowers. We had notice of their intention the day before, and early in the morning, Perditor arrived with her daughter. Raymond would follow soon, she said. He had been detained by business. According to Adrian's account, I had expected to find her sad, but on the contrary, she seemed in the highest spirits. True, she had grown thin, her eyes were somewhat hollow,

Starting point is 05:37:07 and her cheeks sunk, though tinged by a bright glow. She was delighted to see us, caressed our children, praised their growth and development. Clara also was pleased to meet again her young friend Alfred. All kinds of childish games were entered into, in which purdata joined. She communicated her gaiety to us, and as we amused ourselves on the castle terrace, it appeared that a happier, less careworn party could not have been assembled. This is better, Mama, said Clara, than being in that. dismal london where you often cry and never laugh as you do now silence little foolish thing replied her mother and remember any one that mentions london is sent to coventry for an hour

Starting point is 05:37:54 soon after raymond arrived he did not join as usual in the playful spirit of the rest but entering into conversation with adrian and myself by degrees we succeeded from our companions and idris and perdeter only remained with the children raymond talked of his new buildings of his plan for an establishment for the better education of the poor as usual adrian and he entered into argument and the time slipped away unperceived we assembled again towards evening and purdator insisted on our having recourse to music she wanted she said to give us a specimen of her new accomplishment for since she had been in london she had applied herself to music and sang without much power to her own power, but with a great deal of sweetness. We were not permitted by her to select any but light-hearted melodies, and all the operas of Mozart were called into service that we might choose the most exhilarating of his airs. Among the other transcendent attributes of Mozart's music, it possesses more than any other that of appearing to come from the heart. You enter into the passions expressed by him, and are transported with grief, joy, anger or confusion, as

Starting point is 05:39:12 as he, our soul's master, chooses to inspire. For some time, the spirit of hilarity was kept up, but at length, purdata receded from the piano, for Raymond had joined in the trio of Tassi Indiusticore in Don Giovanni, whose arch entreaty was softened by him into tenderness, and thrilled her heart with memories of the changed past. It was the same voice, the same tone, the self-same sounds and words which often before she had received,

Starting point is 05:39:44 as the homage of love to her, no longer was it that, and this concord of sound with its dissonance of expression penetrated her with regret and despair. Soon after Idris, who was at the harp, turned to that passionate and sorrowful air in Figaro, Porgi Amor Quilcherisphoro, in which the deserted countess laments the change of the faithless alma-viva. The sound of tender sorrow is breathed forth in this strain, and the sweet voice of Idris, sustained by the mournful chords of her instrument, added to the expression of the words.

Starting point is 05:40:20 During the pathetic appeal with which it concludes, a stifled sob attracted our attention to perdeter. The cessation of the music recalled her to herself. She hastened out of the hall. I followed her. At first she seemed to wish to shun me, and then, yielding to my earnest questioning she threw herself on my neck and wept aloud once more she cried once more on your friendly breast my beloved brother can the lost perditor pour forth her sorrows i had imposed a law of silence on myself and for months i have kept it i do wrong in weeping now and greater wrong in giving words to my grief i will not speak be it enough for you to know that i am miserable be it enough for you to know that the painted veil of life is rent that i sit forever shrouded in darkness and gloom that grief is my sister everlasting lamentation my mate i endeavoured to console her i did not question her but i caressed her assured her of my deepest affection and my intense interest in the changes of her fortune dear words she cried expressions of love come upon my ear like the remembrance of love come upon my ear like the remember remembered sounds of forgotten music that had been dear to me they are vain i know how very vain in their attempt to soothe or comfort me dearest lionel you cannot guess what i have suffered during these long months

Starting point is 05:41:52 i have read of mourners in ancient days who clothed themselves in sackcloth scattered dust upon their heads ate their bread mingled with ashes and took up their abode on the bleak mountain-tops reproaching heaven and earth aloud with their heads their misfortunes. Why, this is the very luxury of sorrow. Thus one might go from day to day, contriving new extravagances, reveling in the paraphernalia of woe, wedded to all the appurtenances of despair. Alas, I must forever conceal the wretchedness that consumes me. I must weave a veil of dazzling falsehood to hide my grief from vulgar eyes, smooth my brow, and paint my lips in deceitful smiles. Even in solitude I dare not think how lost I am, lest I become insane and rave. The tears and agitation of my poor sister had rendered her unfit to return to the circle we had left, so I persuaded her to let me drive her through the park, and, during the ride, I induced her to confide the tale of

Starting point is 05:42:59 of her unhappiness to me, fancying that talking of it would lighten the burthen, and certain that, if there were a remedy, it should be found and secured to her. Several weeks had elapsed since the festival of the anniversary, and she had been unable to calm her mind, or to subdue her thoughts to any regular train. Sometimes she reproached herself for taking too bitterly to heart that which many would esteem an imaginary evil, but this was no subject for reason,

Starting point is 05:43:30 and, ignorant as she was, of the motives and true conduct of Raymond, Things assumed for her even a worse appearance than the reality warranted. He was seldom at the palace. Never, but when he was assured that his public duties would prevent his remaining alone with perditer, they seldom addressed each other, shunning explanation, each fearing any communication the other might make. Suddenly, however, the manners of Raymond changed. He appeared to design to find opportunities of bringing about a return to kindness and interruption, with my sister. The tide of love towards her appeared to flow again. He could never forget how

Starting point is 05:44:11 once he had been devoted to her, making her the shrine and storehouse where into place every thought and every sentiment. Shame seemed to hold him back, yet he evidently wished to establish a renewal of confidence and affection. From the moment, Perditer had sufficiently recovered herself to form any plan of action, she had laid one down, which she now prepared to follow. She received these tokens of returning love with gentleness. She did not shun his company, but she endeavored to place a barrier in the way of familiar intercourse or painful discussion, which mingled pride and shame prevented Raymond from surmounting. He began at last to shew signs of angry impatience, and Pertita became aware that the system she had adopted could not continue.

Starting point is 05:45:02 she must explain herself to him she could not summon courage to speak she wrote thus read this letter with patience i entreat you it will contain no reproaches reproaches indeed an idle word for what should i reproach you allow me in some degree to explain my feeling without that we shall both grope in the dark mistaking one another erring from the path which may conduct one of us at least to a more eligible mode of life than that led by either during the last few weeks i loved you i love you neither anger nor pride dictate these lines but to feeling beyond deeper and more unalterable than either my affections are wounded it is impossible to heal them cease then the vain endeavour if indeed that way your endeavours tend forgiveness return idle words are these i forgive the pain i endure but the trodden path cannot be retraced common affection might have been satisfied with common usages i believed that you read my heart and knew its devotion its unalienable fidelity towards you i never loved any but you you came the embodied image of my fondest dreams the praise of men power and high aspirations attended your career love for you invested the world for me in enchanted light it was no longer the earth i trod the earth common mother yielding only trite and stale repetition of objects and circumstances old and worn out i lived in a temple glorified by intensest sense of devotion and rapture i walked a consecrated being contemplating only your power your excellence

Starting point is 05:47:04 for oh you stood beside me like my youth transformed for me the real to a dream clothing the palpable and familiar with golden exhalations of the dawn the bloom has vanished from my life there is no morning to this all-investing night no rising to the set sun of love in those days the rest of the world was nothing to me all other men i never considered nor felt what they were nor did i look on you as one of them separated from them exalted in my heart sole possessor of my affections single object of my hopes the best half of myself ah raymond were we not happy did the sun shine on any who could enjoy its light with purer and more intense bliss it was not it is not a common infidelity at which i repine it is the disunion of unhury of unhury which i repine it is the disunion of unhury whole, which may not have parts. It is the carelessness with which you have shaken off the mantle of election with which to me you are invested, and have become one among the many. Dream not to alter this. Is not love a divinity because it is immortal? Did not I appear sanctified, even to myself, because this love had for its temple my heart. I have gazed on you as you slept, melted even to

Starting point is 05:48:36 tears, as the idea filled my mind that all I possessed lay cradled in those idolized, but mortal lineaments before me. Yet, even then, I have checked thick coming fears with one thought. I would not fear death, for the emotions that linked us must be immortal. And now I do not fear death. I should be well pleased to close my eyes, never more to open them again. And yet I fear it, even as I fear all things. For in any state of being linked by the chain of memory with this, happiness would not return. Even in paradise, I must feel that your love was less enduring than the mortal beatings of my fragile heart, every pulse of which knells audibly. The funeral note of love, deep buried without resurrection.

Starting point is 05:49:30 No, no, me miserable, for love extinct there is no resurrection. yet I love you. Yet, and forever, would I contribute all I possess to your welfare? On account of a tattling world, for the sake of our child, I would remain by you, Raymond, share your fortunes, partake your counsel. Shall it be thus? We are no longer lovers,

Starting point is 05:50:00 nor can I call myself a friend to any. Since, lost as I am, I have no thought to spare from my own world. wretched engrossing self. But it will please me to see you each day, to listen to the public voice praising you, to keep up your maternal love for our girl, to hear your voice, to know that I am near you, though you are no longer mine. If you wish to break the chains that bind us, say the word and it shall be done. I will take all the blame on myself, of harshness or unkindness in the world's eye. yet, as I have said, I should be best pleased, at least for the present, to live under the same roof with you. When the fever of my young life is spent, when placid age shall tame the vulture that devours me, friendship may come, love and hope being dead, may this be true?

Starting point is 05:50:56 Can my soul, inextricably link to this perishable frame, become lethargic and cold, even as this sensitive mechanism, shall use its youthful elasticity. Then, with lackluster eyes, grey hairs, and wrinkled brow, though now the words sound hollow and meaningless, then, tottering on the grave's extreme edge, I may be, your affectionate and true friend, perditer. Reman's answer was brief. What indeed could he reply to her complaints, to her griefs which she jealously paled round, keeping out all thought of remedy. Notwithstanding your bitter letter, he wrote, for bitter I must call it. You are the chief person in my estimation, and it is your happiness that I would principally consult.

Starting point is 05:51:49 Do that which seems best to you, and if you can receive gratification from one mode of life in preference to another, do not let me be any obstacle. I foresee that the plan which you mark out in your letter will not end your life. long, but you are mistress of yourself, and it is my sincere wish to contribute as far as you will permit me to your happiness. Raymond has prophesied well, said Perditor, alas, that it should be so. Our present mode of life cannot continue long, yet I will not be the first to propose alteration. He beholds in me one whom he has injured, even unto death, and I derive no hope from his kindness. No change can possibly be brought about, even by his best intentions. As well might Cleopatra have worn as an ornament, the vinegar which contained her dissolved pearl,

Starting point is 05:52:44 as I be content with the love that Raymond can now offer me. I own that I did not see her misfortune with the same eyes as perditer. At all events me thought that the wound could be healed, and if they remained together it would be so. I endeavoured there, therefore to soothe and soften her mind, and it was not until after many endeavours that I gave up the task as impracticable. Perditer listened to me impatiently, and answered with some asperity. Do you think that any of your arguments are new to me, or that my own burning wishes and intense anguish, have not suggested them all a thousand times, with far more eagerness and subtlety than you can put into them? Lionel, you cannot understand what woman's love is.

Starting point is 05:53:32 In days of happiness I have often repeated to myself, with a grateful heart and exulting spirit, all that Raymond sacrificed for me. I was a poor, uneducated, unbefriended mountain girl, raised from nothingness by him. All that I possessed of the luxuries of life came from him. He gave me an illustrious name and noble station, the world's respect reflected from his own glory.

Starting point is 05:53:59 All this joined to his own undying love, inspired me with sensations towards him, akin to those with which we regard the giver of life. I gave him love only. I devoted myself to him, imperfect creature that I was. I took myself to task that I might become worthy of him. I watched over my hasty temper,

Starting point is 05:54:21 subdued my burning impatience of character, schooled my self-engrossing thoughts, educated myself to the best perfection I might attain, that the fruit of my exertions might be his happiness. I took no merit to myself for this. He deserved it all, all labour, all devotion, all sacrifice. I would have toiled a scaleless alp to pluck a flower that would please him. I was ready to quit you all, my beloved and gifted companions, and to live only with him for him. I could not do otherwise, even if I had wished.

Starting point is 05:54:59 For if we are said to have two souls, he was my better soul, to which the other was a perpetual slave. One only returned did he owe me, even fidelity. I earned that, I deserved it. Because I was mountain-bred, unallied to the noble and wealthy, shall he think to repay me by an empty name and station? Let him take them back. Without his love they are nothing to me. Their only merit in my eyes was that they were his. Thus passionately, Perditor ran on. When I adverted to the question of their entire separation, she replied,

Starting point is 05:55:38 Be it so, one day the period will arrive. I know it and feel it. But in this I am a coward. This imperfect companionship, and our masquerade of union, are strangely dear to me. It is painful, I allow, destructive, impracticable. It keeps up a perpetual fever in my veins. It frets my immedicable wound. It is instinct with poison. Yet I must cling to it. Perhaps it will kill me soon, and thus perform a thankful office. In the meantime, Raymond had remained with Adrian and Idris.

Starting point is 05:56:16 He was naturally frank. The continued absence of Perditer and myself became remarkable, and Raymond soon found relief from the constraint of months by an unreserved confidence with his two friends. He related to them the situation in which he had found Yvadne. At first, from delicacy to Adrian, he concealed her name, but it was divulged in the course of his narrative, and her former lover heard, with the most acute agitation,

Starting point is 05:56:43 the history of her sufferings. Idris had shared perditor's ill opinion of the Greek, but Raymond's accounts softened and interested her. Evadne's constancy, fortitude, even her ill-fated and ill-regulated love, were matter of admiration and pity, especially when, from the detail of the events of the 19th of October, it was apparent that she preferred suffering and death to any in her eyes degrading application for the pity and assistance of her lover.

Starting point is 05:57:16 Her subsequent conduct did not diminish this interest, At first, relieved from famine in the grave, watched over by Raymond with the tenderest assiduity, with that feeling of repose peculiar to convalescence, Evadne gave herself up to rapturous gratitude and love, but reflection returned with health. She questioned him with regard to the motives which had occasioned his critical absence. She framed her inquiries with Greek subtlety. She formed her conclusions with the decision and firmness peculiar to her disposition.

Starting point is 05:57:52 She could not divine that the breach which she had occasioned between Raymond and Perditer was already irreparable. But she knew that under the present system it would be widened each day and that its result must be

Starting point is 05:58:05 to destroy her lover's happiness and to implant the fangs of remorse in his heart. From the moment that she perceived the right line of conduct she resolved to adopt it and to part from Raymond forever. conflicting passions long cherished love and self-inflicted disappointment made her regard death alone as sufficient refuge for her woe but the same feelings and opinions which had before restrained her acted with redoubled force for she knew that the reflection that he had occasioned her death would pursue raymond through life poisoning every enjoyment clouding every prospect

Starting point is 05:58:46 besides though the violence of her anguish made life hateful it had not yet produced that monotonous lethargic sense of changeless misery which for the most part produces suicide her energy of character induced her still to combat with the ills of life even those attendant on hopeless love presented themselves rather in the shape of an adversary to be overcome than of a victor to whom she must submit besides she had memories of past tenderness to cherish smiles words and even tears to con over which though remembered in desertion and sorrow were to be preferred to the forgetfulness of the grave it was impossible to guess at the whole of her plan her letter to raymond gave no clue for discovery it assured him that she was in no danger of wanting the means of life she promised in it to preserve herself and some future day perhaps to present herself to him in a station not unworthy of her she then bade him with the eloquence of despair and of unalterable love a last farewell all these circumstances were now related to adrian and idris raymond then lamented the cureless evil of his situation with perditer he declared notwithstanding her harshness he even called it coldness that he loved her he had been ready once with the humility of a penitent and the duty of a vassal to surrender himself to her giving up his very soul to her tutelage to become her pupil her slave her bondsman she had rejected these advances and the time for such exuberant submission which must be founded on love and nourished by it was now past still all his wishes and endeavours were directed towards her peace and his choice and his choice were directed towards her peace and his choice

Starting point is 06:00:46 chief discomfort arose from the perception that he exerted himself in vain. If she were to continue inflexible in the line of conduct she now pursued, they must part. The combinations and occurrences of this senseless mode of intercourse were maddening to him. Yet he would not propose the separation. He was haunted by the fear of causing the death of one or other of the beings implicated in these events, and he could not persuade himself to undertake to direct the course of events lest ignorant of the land he traversed he should lead those attached to the car into irremediable ruin after a discussion on this subject which lasted for several hours he took leave of his friends and returned to town unwilling to meet perditer before us conscious as we all must be of the thoughts uppermost in the minds of both perditer prepared to follow him with her child idris endeavored to pursue to pursue him to pursue him to her own her to remain. My poor sister looked at the counsellor with a fright. She knew that Raymond had

Starting point is 06:01:51 conversed with her. Had he instigated this request? Was this to be the prelude to their eternal separation? I have said that the defects of her character awoke and acquired vigor from her unnatural position. She regarded with suspicion the invitation of Idris. She embraced me, as if she were about to be deprived of my affection also, calling me more than her brother, her only friend, her last hope, she pathetically conjured me not to cease to love her, and with increased anxiety she departed for London, the scene and cause of all her misery.

Starting point is 06:02:31 The scenes that followed convinced her that she had not yet fathomed the obscure gulf into which she had plunged. Her unhappiness assumed every day a new shape, every day some unexpected events seemed to close while in fact it led onward the train of calamities which now befell her the selected passion of the soul of raymond was ambition readiness of talent a capacity of entering into and leading the dispositions of men earnest desire of distinction were the awakeners and nurses of his ambition but other ingredients mingled with these and prevented him from becoming the calculating determined character which alone forms a successful hero he was obstinate but not firm benevolent in his first movements harsh and reckless when provoked above all he was remorseless and unyielding in the pursuit of any object of desire however lawless love of pleasure and the softer sensibilities of our nature made a prominent part of his character conquering the conqueror holding him in at the moment of acquisition sweeping away ambitions web

Starting point is 06:03:43 making him forget the toil of weeks for the sake of one moment's indulgence of the new and actual object of his wishes obeying these impulses he had become the husband of perditer egged on by them he found himself the lover of ivadne he had now now lost both. He had neither the unnobling self-gratulation, which Constancy inspires, to console him, nor the voluptuous sense of abandonment to a forbidden but intoxicating passion. His heart was exhausted by the recent events. His enjoyment of life was destroyed by the resentment of Purditer and the flight of Evadne, and the inflexibility of the former set the last seal upon the annihilation of his hopes. As long as their disunion remained a secret, he cherished an expectation of reawakening past tenderness in her bosom, now that we were all made acquainted with these occurrences,

Starting point is 06:04:40 and that purdata, by declaring her resolves to others, in a manner pledged herself to their accomplishment, he gave up the idea of reunion as futile, and sought only, since he was unable to influence her to change, to reconcile himself to the present state of things. He made a vow against love and its train of struggles, disappointment and remorse, and sought in mere sensual enjoyment, a remedy for the injurious inroads of passion. Debasement of character is the certain follower of such pursuits. Yet this consequence would not have been immediately remarkable if Raymond had continued to apply himself to the execution of his plans for the public benefits and the fulfilling his duties as protector. but extreming all things given up to immediate impressions he entered with ardour into this new pursuit of pleasure and followed up the incongruous intimacies occasioned by it without reflection or foresight

Starting point is 06:05:42 the council chamber was deserted the crowds which attended on him as agents to his various projects were neglected festivity and even libertinism became the order of the day perditer beheld with affright the increasing disorder for a moment she thought that she could stem the torrent and that raymond could be induced to hear reason from her vain hope the moment of her influence was past he listened with haughtiness replied disdainfully and if in truth she succeeded in awakening his conscience the sole effect was that he sought an opiate for the pang in oblivious riots with the energy natural to her purdator then endeavored to supply his place their still apparent union permitted her to do much but no woman could in the end present a remedy to the increasing negligence of the protector who as if seized with a paroxysm of insanity trampled on all ceremony all order all duty and gave himself up to license reports of these strange proceedings reached us and we were undecided what method to a adopt to restore our friend to himself and his country, when purdator suddenly appeared among us. She detailed the progress of the mournful change, and entreated Adrian and myself to go up to London, and endeavour to remedy the increasing evil.

Starting point is 06:07:09 Tell him, she cried. Tell Lord Raymond that my presence shall no longer annoy him, that he need not plunge into this destructive dissipation for the sake of disgusting me and causing me to fly. This purpose is now accomplished. will never see me more. But let me, it is my last entreaty, let me in the praises of his countrymen and the prosperity of England, find the choice of my youth justified. During our ride up to town, Adrian and I discussed and argued upon Raymond's conduct, and his falling off from the hopes of permanent excellence on his part, which he had before given us cause to entertain. My friend and I

Starting point is 06:07:50 had both been educated in one school, or rather I was his pupil in the opinion. that steady adherence to principle was the only road to honour. A ceaseless observance of the laws of general utility, the only conscientious aim of human ambition. But though we both entertain these ideas, we differed in their application. Resentment added also a sting to my censure, and I reprobated Raymond's conduct in severe terms.

Starting point is 06:08:16 Adrian was more benign, more considerate. He admitted that the principles that I laid down were the best, but he denied that they were, were the only ones. Quoting the text, there are many mansions in my father's house, he insisted that the modes of becoming good or great varied as much as the dispositions of men, of whom it might be said, as of the leaves of the forest, there were no two alike. We arrived in London at about eleven at night. We conjectured, notwithstanding what we had heard, that we should find Raymond in St. Stevens, thither we sped. The chamber was full, but there was no protector.

Starting point is 06:08:54 and there was an austere discontent manifest on the countenances of the leaders, and a whispering and busy tattle among the underlings, not less ominous. We hastened to the palace of the protectorates. We found Raymond in his dining room with six others. The bottle was being pushed around merrily, and had made considerable inroads on the understanding of one or two. He who sat near Raymond was telling a story which convulsed the rest with laughter. Raymond sat among them, though while he entered into the spirit of the hour, his natural dignity never forsook him.

Starting point is 06:09:31 He was gay, playful, fascinating, but never did he overstep the modesty of nature, or the respect due to himself in his wildest sallies. Yet I own that, considering the task which Raymond had taken on himself as protector of England, and the cares to which it became him to attend, I was exceedingly provoked. to observe the worthless fellows on whom his time was wasted, and the jovial, if not drunken, spirit which seemed on the point of robbing him of his better self. I stood watching the scene, while Adrian flitted like a shadow in among them, and, by a word and look of sobriety, endeavoured to restore order in the assembly. Raymond expressed himself delighted to see him, declaring that he should make one in the festivity of the night.

Starting point is 06:10:23 This action of Adrian provoked me. I was indignant that he should sit at the same table with the companions of Raymond, men of abandoned characters, or rather without any, the refuse of high-bred luxury, the disgrace of their country. Let me entreat, Adrian, I cried, not to comply. Rather join with me in endeavouring to withdraw Lord Raymond from this seat and restore him to other society. My good fellow, said Raymond, this is neither the time nor place. for the delivery of a moral lecture.

Starting point is 06:10:55 Take my word for it that my amusements and society are not so bad as you imagine. We are neither hypocrites or fools. For the rest, dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale. I turned angrily away.

Starting point is 06:11:11 Verney, said Adrian, you are very cynical. Sit down. Or if you will not, perhaps, as you are not a frequent visitor, Lord Raymond will humour you and accompany us, as we had previously agreed.

Starting point is 06:11:23 agreed upon to Parliament. Raymond looked keenly at him. He could read benignity only in his gentle lineaments. He turned to me, observing with scorn my moody and stern demeaner. Come, said Adrian, I have promised for you. Enable me to keep my engagements. Come with us. Raymond made an uneasy movement, and laconically replied, I won't. The party in the meantime had broken up. They looked at the pictures, strolled into the other apartments. talked of billiards, and one by one vanished. Raymond strode angrily up and down the room. I stood ready to receive and replied to his reproaches.

Starting point is 06:12:04 Adrian leaned against the wall. This is infinitely ridiculous, he cried. If you were schoolboys, you could not conduct yourselves more unreasonably. You do not understand, said Raymond. This is only part of a system, a scheme of tyranny to which I will never submit. Because I am protector of England, am I to be the only slave in its empire? My privacy invaded, my actions censured, my friends insulted. But I will get rid of the whole together, be you witnesses, and he took the star,

Starting point is 06:12:36 insignia of office from his breast, and threw it on the table. I renounce my office, I abdicate my power, assume it who will. Let him assume it, exclaimed Adrian, who can pronounce himself, or whom the world will pronounce to be your superior. There does not exist the man in England with adequate presumption. Know yourself, Raymond, and your indignation will cease. Your complacency return. A few months ago, whenever we prayed for the prosperity of our country, of our own, we at the same time prayed for the life and welfare of the protector,

Starting point is 06:13:13 as indissolubly linked to it. Your hours were devoted to our benefits. Your ambition was to obtain our commendation. You decorated our towns with Edmunds. You bestowed on us useful establishments. You gifted the soil with abundant fertility. The powerful and unjust cowered at the steps of your judgment seat, and the poor and oppressed arose like morn awakened flowers

Starting point is 06:13:38 under the sunshine of your protection. Can you wonder that we are all aghast and mourn when this appears changed? But come, this planetic fit is already past. Resume your functions. Your partisans will hail you. partisans will hail you, your enemies will be silenced. Our love, honour and duty will again be manifested towards you. Master yourself, Raymond, and the world is subject to you. All this would be very good sense if addressed to another, replied Raymond moodily. Con the lesson yourself, and you,

Starting point is 06:14:12 the first peer of the land, may become its sovereign. You, the good, the wise, the just, may rule all hearts. But I perceive, too soon for my own happiness, too late for England's good, that I undertook a task to which I am unequal. I cannot rule myself. My passions are my masters, my smallest impulse, my tyrant. Do you think that I renounce the protectorate, and I have renounced it, in a fit of spleen? By the God that lives, I swear never to take up that bobble again, never again to berthen myself with the weight of care and misery, of which that is the visible sign. Once I desired to be a king, it was in the heyday of youth, in the pride of boyish folly.

Starting point is 06:14:59 I knew myself when I renounced it. I renounced it to gain, no matter what, for that also I have lost. For many months I have submitted to this mock majesty, this solemn jest. I am its dupe no longer. I will be free. I have lost that, with you. I have lost that, with you. I have lost that, adorned and dignified my life, that which linked me to other men. Again I am a solitary man, and I will become again, as in my early years, a wanderer, a soldier of fortune. My friends, for Verney, I feel that you are my friend, do not endeavour to shake my resolve. Perditor, wedded to an imagination, careless of what is behind the veil, whose character is in truth faulty and vile. Perditor has renounced me.

Starting point is 06:15:46 with her it was pretty enough to play a sovereign's part and as in the recesses of your beloved forest we acted masks and imagined ourselves arcadian shepherds to please the fancy of the moment so i was content more for perditers's sake than my own to take on me the character of one of the great ones of the earth to lead her behind the scenes of grandeur to vary her life with a short act of magnificence and power this was to be the colour color, love and confidence the substance of our existence. But we must live and not act our lives. Pursuing the shadow, I lost the reality, and now I renounce both. Adrian, I am about to return to Greece to become again a soldier, perhaps a conqueror. Will you accompany me? You will behold new scenes, see a new people, witness the mighty struggle there going forward

Starting point is 06:16:43 between civilization and barbarism. behold and perhaps direct the efforts of a young and vigorous population for liberty and order come with me i have expected you i waited for this moment all is prepared will you accompany me i will replied adrian immediately to-morrow if you will reflect i cried wherefore asked raymond my dear fellow i have done nothing else than reflect on this step the livelong summer and be assured that Adrian has condensed an age of reflection into this little moment. Do not talk of reflection. From this moment I abjure it. This is my only happy moment during a long interval of time. I must go, Lionel, the gods willeth, and I must.

Starting point is 06:17:34 Do not endeavour to deprive me of my companion, the outcast's friend. One word more concerning unkind, unjust perditer. For a time, I thought that, by what you. a complying moment fostering the still warm ashes I might relume in her the flame of love. It is more cold within her than a fire left by gypsies in wintertime, the spent embers crowned by a pyramid of snow. Then, in endeavouring to do violence to my own disposition, I made all worse than before.

Starting point is 06:18:08 Still I think that time and even absence may restore her to me. Remember that I love her still, that my dearest hope is that she will again be mine. I know, though she does not, how false the veil is, which she has spread over the reality, do not endeavour to rend this deceptive covering, but by degrees withdraw it.

Starting point is 06:18:31 Present her with a mirror, in which she may know herself, and, when she is an adept in that necessary but difficult science, she will wonder at her present mistake, and hasten to restore to me what is by right mine, Her forgiveness, her kind thoughts, her love. End of Volume 1, Chapter 9. Recording by Philippa Willits.

Starting point is 06:19:11 Volume 1, Chapter 10 of The Last Man. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Eddie Winter. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Volume 1 Chapter 10 After these events, it was long before we were able to attain any degree of composure.

Starting point is 06:19:42 A moral tempest had wrecked our richly freighted vessel, and we, remnants of the diminished crew, were cast at the losses and changes which we had undergone. I had risked passionately loved her brother, and could ill brook an absence whose duration was uncertain. His society was dear and necessary to me. I had followed up my chosen literary occupations with delight under his tutorship and assistants. His mild philosophy, unerring reason, and enthusiastic friendship were the best ingredient, the exalted spirit of our circle. Even the children bitterly regretted the loss of their kind playfellow.

Starting point is 06:20:23 Deeper grief oppressed Bredita. In spite of resentment by day and night, she figured to herself the toils and dangers of the wanderers. Raymond, absent, struggling with difficulties, lost to the power and rank of the protectorate, exposed to the perils of war, became an object of anxious interest, not that she felt any inclination to recall him, if recall must imply a return to their former union. Such returns she felt to be impossible, and while she believed it to be thus, and with anguish, regretted that so it should be, she continued angry and impatient with him. who occasioned her misery.

Starting point is 06:21:04 These perplexities and regrets caused her to bathe her pillow with nightly tears and to reduce her in person and in mind to the shadow of what she had been. She sought solitude and avoided us when in gaiety and unrestrained affection we met in a family circle.

Starting point is 06:21:21 Lonely musings, interminable wanderings and solemn music were her only pastimes. She neglected even her child, shutting her heart against all tenderness. she grew reserved towards me, her first and fast friend. I could not see her thus lost without exerting myself to remedy the evil. Remedyless, I knew, if I could not in the end bring her to reconcile herself to Raymond.

Starting point is 06:21:48 Before he went, I used every argument, every persuasion, to induce her to stop his journey. She answered the one with a gush of tears, telling me that to be persuaded, life and the goods of life were a cheap exchange. It was not will that she wanted, but the capacity, a gain and again she declared, it were as easy to enchain the sea, to put rains on the wind's viewless courses,

Starting point is 06:22:14 as for her to take truth for falsehood, deceit for honesty, heartless communion for sincere, confiding love. She answered my reasonings more briefly, declaring with disdain that the reason was hers, and until I could persuade her, that the past could be unacted, that maturity could go back to the cradle, and that all that was could become as though it had never been, it was useless to assure her that no real change had

Starting point is 06:22:40 taken place in her fate. And thus, with stern pride, she suffered him to go, though her very heartstrings cracked at the fulfilling of the act, which went from her all that made life valuable. To change the scene for her, and even for ourselves, all unhinge. hinged by the cloud that had come over us, I persuaded my two remaining companions that it were better that we should absent ourselves for a time from Windsor. We visited the north of England,

Starting point is 06:23:10 my native Oldswater, and lingered in scenes dear from a thousand associations. We lengthened our tour into Scotland that we might see Lockechatrine and Locke Lomond. Thence we crossed to Ireland and passed several weeks in the neighbourhood of Killarney, a change of scene operated to a great degree as i expected after a year's absence padita returned in gentler and more docile mood to windsor the first sight of this place for a time unhinged her here every spot was distinct with associations now grown bitter the forest glades the ferny dells the lawny uplands the cultivated and cheerful country spread around the silver pathway of ancient thames all earth air and wave took up one choral voice inspired by memory instinct with plaintive regret

Starting point is 06:24:06 but my essay towards bringing her to a saner view of her own situation did not end here butita was still to a great degree uneducated when first she left her peasant life and resided with the elegant and cultivated evadne the only accomplishment she brought to any perfection was that of painting for which she had a taste almost amounting to genius this had occupied her in her lonely cottage when she quitted her greek friend's protection her pallet and easel were now sewn aside did she try to paint strong in recollections made her hand tremble her eyes filled with tears with his occupation she gave up almost every other and her mind preyed upon itself almost to madness for my own part since asian had first withdrawn me from my salvatic wilderness to his own paradise of alderum beauty i had been wedded to literature i felt convinced that however it might have been in former times in the present stage of the world no man's faculties could be developed no man's moral principles be enlarged and liberal without an extensive acquaintance with books to me they stood in the place of an active career of ambition and those palpable excitements necessary to the multitude the collation of philosophical opinions the study of historical facts the acquirement of languages were at once my recreation and the serious aim of my life. I turned author myself.

Starting point is 06:25:40 My productions, however, were sufficiently unpretending. They were confined to the biography of favourite historical characters, especially those whom I believed to have been introduced, or about whom clung obscurity and doubt. As my authorship increased, I acquired new sympathies and pleasures. I found another, and a valuable link to ensign me to my fellow creatures, my point of sight was extended and the inclinations and capacities of all human beings became deeply interesting to me kings have been called the fathers of their people suddenly i became as it were the father of all mankind posterity became my ears my thoughts were gems to enrich the treasure-house of man's intellectual possessions each sentiment was a precious gift i bestowed on them

Starting point is 06:26:32 Let not these aspirations be attributed to vanity. They were not expressed in words, not even reduced to form in my own mind, but they filled my soul, exulting my thoughts, raising a glow of enthusiasm, and led me out of the obscure path in which I before walked

Starting point is 06:26:50 into the bright noon-enlightened highway of mankind, making me, citizen of the world, a candidate for immortal honours, an eager aspirant to the praise and sense, sympathy of my fellow men. No one certainly ever enjoyed the pleasures of composition more intensely than I. If I left the woods, the solemn music of the waving branches, and the majestic temple of nature, I sought the vast halls of the castle, and looked over wide, fertile England,

Starting point is 06:27:20 spread beneath our regal mount, and listened to the while to inspiring strains of music. At such times, solemn harmonies or spirit-stirring airs gave wings. to my lagging thoughts permitting them methought to penetrate the last vale of nature and her god and to display the highest beauty invisible expression to the understandings of men as the music went on my ideas seemed to quit their mortal dwelling-house they shook their opinions and began a fight sailing on the placid current of thought filling the creation with new glory and rousing sublime imagery that else had slept voiceless then i would hasten to my desk weave the new-found web of mind in firm texture and brilliant colours leaving the fashioning of the material to a calmer moment but this account which might as properly belonged to a former period of my life as to the present moment leads me far afield it was the pleasure i took in literature the discipline of mind i found arise from it that made me eager to lead pedita to the same pursuits i began with light hand and gentle allurement first exciting her curiosity and then satisfying it in such a way as might occasion her at the same time that she half forgot her sorrows in occupation to find in the hours that succeeded a reaction of benevolence and toleration Intellectual activity, though not directed towards books, had always been my sister's characteristic.

Starting point is 06:28:56 It had been displayed early in life, leading her out to solitary musing among her native mountains, causing her to form innumerous combinations from common objects, given strength to her perceptions and swiftness to their arrangement. Love had come, as the rod of the master prophet, to swallow up every minor propensity. love had doubled all her excellences, and placed a diadem on her genius. Was she to cease love? Take the colours and odour from the rose, change a sweet nutriment of mother's milk to gall and poison, as easily might you wean pedita, from love. She grieved for the loss of Raymond with an anguish that exiled all smile from her lips, and trench sad lines on her brow of beauty. But each day seemed to change the nature of her soul.

Starting point is 06:29:48 suffering, and every succeeding hour forced her to alter, if so I may starlet, the fashion of her soul's mourning garb. For a time, music was able to satisfy the cravings of her mental hunger, and her melancholy thoughts renewed themselves in each change of key, and varied with every alteration in the strain. My schooling first impelled her towards books, and if music had been the food of sorrow, the productions of the wise became its medicine. The acquisition of unknown languages was too tedious an occupation for one who referred every expression to the universe within and read not, as many do, for the mere sake of filling up time. But who was, still questioning herself, and her author, moulding every idea in a thousand ways, ardently desirous for the

Starting point is 06:30:41 discovery of truth in every sentence. She sought to to improve her understanding. Mechanically, her heart and dispositions became soft and gentle under this benign discipline. After a while, she discovered that amidst all her newly acquired knowledge, her own character which formerly she fancied that she thoroughly understood, became the first in rank among the Tere Incognita, the pathless wilds of the country that had no chart. Erringly and strangely, she began the task of self-executive. examination with self-condemnation. And then again she became aware of her own excellences, and began to balance with just the scales the shades of good and evil. I, who longed beyond words

Starting point is 06:31:29 to restore her to the happiness it was still in her power to enjoy, watched with anxiety the result of these internal proceedings. But man is a strange animal. We cannot calculate on his forces like that of an engine, and though an impulse draw with a faulty horsepower a what appears willing to yield to one, yet in contempt of calculation, the movement is not affected. Neither grief, philosophy, nor love could make Baudita think with mildness of the dereliction of Raymond. She now took pleasure in my society. Towards Idris, she felt and displayed a full and affectionate sense of her earth. She restored to her child in abundant measure, her tenderness and care, but I could discover amidst all her repinings deep resentment towards Raymond, and an unfading sense of

Starting point is 06:32:21 injury that plucked from me my hope when I appeared nearest to its fulfilment. Among other painful restrictions, she has occasioned it to become a law among us, never to mention Raymond's name before her. She refused to read any communications from Greece. desiring me only to mention when they arrived, and whether the wanderers were well. It was curious that even little Clara observed this law towards her mother. This lovely child was nearly eight years of age.

Starting point is 06:32:54 Formerly she had been a light-hearted infant, fanciful but gay and childish. After the departure of her father, thought became impressed on her young brow. Children and adepts in language seldom find words to express their thoughts. nor could we tell in what manner the late events had impressed themselves on her mind but certainly she had made deep observations while she noted in silence the changes that passed around her she never mentioned her father to badita she appeared half afraid when she spoke of him to me and though i tried to draw her out on the subject and to dispel the gloom that hung about her ideas concerning him i could not succeed

Starting point is 06:33:37 yet each fond post-day she watched for the arrival of letters knew the postmark and watched me as i read i found her often pouring over the article of greek intelligence in the newspaper there is no more painful sight than that of untimely care in children and it was particularly observable in one whose disposition had heretofore been mirthful yet there was so much sweetness and docility about clara that your admiration was your admiration was excited, and if the moods of mind are calculated to paint the cheek with beauty and endow the emotions with grace, surely her contemplations must have been celestial, since every lineament was moulded into loveliness, and emotions were more harmonious than the elegant boundings of the farns of her native forests. I sometimes expostulated with Padita on the subject of her reserve, but she rejected my counsels, while her daughter's sense of her. excited in her attending a still more passionate.

Starting point is 06:34:42 After a lapse of more than a year, Adrian returned from Greece. When our exiles had first arrived, a truce was in existence between the Turks and Greeks. A truce that was asleep to the mortal fame, signal of renewed activity on waking, with the numerous soldiers of Asia, with all of warlike stores, ships and military engines that wealth and power could command,

Starting point is 06:35:09 the Turks at once resolved to crush an enemy, which, creeping on by degrees, had from their stronghold in the Moria, acquired Thrace and Macedonia, and had led their armies even to the gates of Constantinople, while their extensive commercial relations gave every European nation an interest in their success. Greece prepared for a vigorous resistance.

Starting point is 06:35:34 It rose to a man, and the women sacrificing their own, costy ornaments accouted their sons for the war, and bade them conquer or die with the spirit of the Spartan mother. The talents and courage of Raymond were highly esteemed among the Greeks. Born at Athens, that city claimed him for her own, and by giving him the commander of her peculiar division in the army, the commander-in-chief only possessed superior power. He was numbered among her citizens, his name was added to the list of Grecian heroes. His judgment activity, and consummate bravery, justified their choice. The Earl of Windsor became a volunteer

Starting point is 06:36:15 under his friend. It is well, said Adrian, to prate of war in these pleasant shades, and with much ill-spent toil make a show of joy, because many thousands of our fellow creatures leave with pain this sweet air and natal earth. I shall not be suspected of being a to the Greek cause. I know and feel its necessity. It is beyond every other a good cause. I have defended it with my sword and was willing that my spirit should be breathed out in its defence. Freedom is of more worth than life, and the Greeks do well to defend their privilege unto death. But let us not deceive ourselves. The Turks are men. Each fibre, each limb, is as feeling as our own, and every spasm be it mental or body. is as truly felt in a turk's heart or brain as in a greeks the last action of which i was present was the taking of blankia the turks resisted to the last the garrison perished on the ramparts and we entered by assault every breathing creature within the walls was massacred think you amidst the shrieks of violated innocence and helpless infancy i did not feel in every nerve the cry of a fellow-being there were men

Starting point is 06:37:33 men and women, the sufferers before there are Mahometans, and when they rise turbulentless from the grave, in what, except their good or evlections, will they be any better or worse than we? Two soldiers contended for a girl, whose rich dress and extreme beauty, excited the brutal appetites of these wretches, who, perhaps good men among their families,

Starting point is 06:37:56 were changed by the fury of the moment into incarnated evils. An old man with a silver beard, decrepid and bald, he might be her grandfather, interposed to save her. The battle-ax of one of them clove his skull. I rushed to her defence, but rage made them blind and deaf. They did not distinguish my Christian garb, or heed my words. Words were blunt weapons, then. For wild war cried havoc, and murder gave fit echo, How could I, turn back the tide of evils, were even wrong with them.

Starting point is 06:38:31 mild a cost of soothing eloquence. One of the fellows enraged at my interference struck me with his bayonet in the side and I fell senseless. This wound will probably shorten my life, having shattered a frame weak of itself, but I am

Starting point is 06:38:47 content to die. I have learnt in Greece that one man more or less is a small import, while human bodies remain to fill up the thin ranks of the soldiery, and that the identity of an individual may be overlooked, so that there must have contain its full numbers. All this has a different effect upon Raymond. He is able to contemplate

Starting point is 06:39:07 the ideal of war, while I am sensible only to its realities. He is a soldier, a general. He can influence the bloodthirsty war dogs while I resist their propensities vainly. The cause is simple. Burke has said that in all bodies, those who would lead must also in a considerable degree follow. I cannot follow, for I do not sympathise in their dreams of massacre and glory. To follow and to lead in such a career is a natural bent of Raymond's mind. He is always successful and bids fair at the same time that he acquires high name and station for himself, to secure liberty, probably extended empire, to the Greeks. But Ita's mind was not softened by this account.

Starting point is 06:39:55 He, she thought, can be great and happy without me. would that i also had a career whither i could freight some untried bark with all my hopes energies and desires and launch it forth into the ocean of life bound for some attainable point with ambition or pleasure at the helm but adverse winds detain me on shore like ulysses i sit at the water's edge and weep but my nerveless hands can neither fill the trees nor smooth the planks under the influence of these melancholy thoughts she became more than ever in love with sorrow it adrian's presence did some good he at once broke through the law of silence observed concerning raymond at first she started from the unaccustomed sound soon she got used to it and to love it and she listened with ability to the account of his achievements clara got rid also of her restraint arian and she had been old playfellows and now as they walked all road together he yielded to her and her entreaty, and repeated, for the hundredth time, some tale of a father's bravery, munificence or justice. Each vessel in the meantime brought exhilarating tidings from Greece. The presence of a friend in its armies and councils made us enter into the details with enthusiasm,

Starting point is 06:41:18 and a short letter now and then from Raymond told us how he was engrossed by the interests of his adopted country. The Greeks were strongly attached to their commercial pursuit, and would have been satisfied with their present acquisitions had not the Turks roused them by invasion. The Patriots were victorious. A spirit of conquest was instilled, and already they looked on Constantinople as their own. Raymond rose perpetually in their estimation, but one man held a superior command to him in their armies. He was conspicuous for his conduct and choice of position in a battle fault in the plains of Thrace. on the banks of the Hebrews, which was to decide the fate of Islam. The Mahometans were defeated, and driven entirely from the country west of this river.

Starting point is 06:42:09 The battle was sanguinary, the loss of the Turks apparently irreparable. The Greeks, in losing one man, forgot the nameless crowd, strode upon the bloody field, and they ceased to value themselves on a victory, which cost them Raymond. At the Battle of Macri, he had led the judge. charge of cavalry and pursued the fugitives even to the banks of the Hebrus. His favourite horse was found grazing by the margin of the tranquil river. It became a question whether he had fallen among the unrecognised, but no broken ornament

Starting point is 06:42:44 or stained trapping betrayed his fate. It was suspected that the Turks, finding themselves possessed of so illustrious a captive, resolved to satisfy their cruelty rather than their avarice, and fearful of the interference of England had come to the determination of concealing forever the cold-blooded murder of the soldier they most hated and feared in the squadrons of the enemy. Raymond was not forgotten in England. His abdication of the protectorate had caused an unexampled sensation, and when his magnificent and manly system was contrasted with the narrow views of succeeding politicians, the period of his elevation was referred to with sorrow. The perpetual recurrence of

Starting point is 06:43:28 his name, joined to most honorable testimonials in the Greek gazettes, gave up the interest he had excited. He seemed the favourite child of fortune, and his untimely loss eclipsed the world and showed forth the remnant of mankind with diminished lustre. They clung with eagerness to the hope held out

Starting point is 06:43:48 that he might yet be alive. Their minister at Constantinople was urged to make the necessary perquisitions, and should his existence be ascertained, to demand his release it was to be hoped that their efforts would succeed and that though no a prisoner the sport of cruelty and the mark of hate he would be rescued from danger and restored to the happiness power and honour which he deserved the effect of this intelligence upon my sister was striking she never for a moment credited the story of his death she resolved instantly to go to greece reasoning and persuasion were thrown away upon her she would endure no hindrance no delay it may be advanced for a truth that if argument or entreaty can turn any one from a desperate purpose whose motive and end depends on the strength of the affections only then it is right so to turn them since their docility shows that neither the motive nor the end were of sufficient force to bear them through the obstacles attendant on their undertaking

Starting point is 06:44:55 if on the contrary they have proof against expostulation this fool's steadiness is no man of success and it becomes the duty of those who love them to assist in smoothing the obstructions in their path such sentiments actuated our little circle finding pedita removable we consulted as to the best means of furthering her purpose she could not go alone to a country where she had no friends where she might arrive only to hear the dreadful news which must overwhelm her with grief and remorse. Adrian, whose health had always been weak, now suffered considerable aggravation of suffering from the effects of his wound. Idris could not endure to leave him in this state, nor was it right either to quit or take with us

Starting point is 06:45:43 a young family for a journey of this description. I resolved at length to accompany Padeta. The separation from my Idris was painful, but necessity reconciled us to still. it in some degree. Necessity and the hope of saving Raymond and restoring him again to happiness and Padeta. No delay was to ensue. Two days after we came to our determination, we set out for Portsmouth and embarked. The season was May, the weather stormless. We were promised a prosperous voyage. Cherishing the most fervent hopes embarked on the waste oceans, we saw with delight the receding

Starting point is 06:46:22 shore of Britain, and on the wings of desire outspeeded our well-filled cells towards the south. The light curling waves bore us onward, and old ocean smiled at the fate of love and hope, committed to his charge. It stroked gently its tempestuous plains, and the path was smoothed for us. Day and night the wind right aft gave steady impulse to our keel. Nor did rough gowl, or treacherous sand or destructive rock interpose an obstacle between my sister and the land which was to restore her to her first beloved, her dear heart's confessor, her heart within that heart. End Volume 1, Chapter 10. Volume 2, Chapter 1 of The Last Man.

Starting point is 06:47:18 This is a Libravox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater. During this voyage, when on calm evenings we conversed on deck, watching the glancing of the waves and the changeful appearances of the sky, I discovered the total revolution that the disasters of Raymond had wrought in the mind of my sister. Were they the same waters of love which lately cold in cutting as ice, repelling as that, now loosened from their frozen chains,

Starting point is 06:47:55 flowed through the regions of her soul in gushing and grateful exuberance. She did not believe that he was dead, but she knew that he was in danger, and the hope of assisting in his liberation, and the idea of soothing by tenderness the ills that he might have undergone, elevated and harmonized the late jarring element of her being. I was not so sanguine as she, as to the result of our voyage. She was not sanguine, but secure, and the age. expectation of seeing the lover she had banished, the husband, friend, heart's companion from whom she had long been alienated, raptor senses and delight, her mind in placidity. It was beginning

Starting point is 06:48:37 life again. It was leaving barren sands for an abode of fertile beauty. It was a harbor after a tempest, an opiate after sleepless nights, a happy waking from a terrible dream. Little Clara accompanied us. The poor child did not well understand what was going forward. She heard that we were bound for Greece, that she would see her father, and now for the first time she prattled of him to her mother. On landing at Athens we found difficulties increase upon us, nor could the storied earth or balmy atmosphere inspire us with enthusiasm or pleasure, while the fate of Raymond was in jeopardy. had ever excited so strong an interest in the public mind. This was apparent even among the phlegmatic English, from whom he had long been absent. The Athenians had expected their hero to return in triumph. The women had taught their children to lisp his name joined to Thanksgiving. His manly

Starting point is 06:49:42 beauty is courage, his devotion to their cause, made him appear in their eyes almost as one of the ancient deities of the soil descended from their native Olympus to defend them. when they spoke of his probable death and certain captivity tears stream from their eyes even as the woman of syria sorrowed for adonis did the wives and mothers of greece lament our english raiment athens was the city of mourning all these shows of despair struck perdita with a fright with that sanguine but confused expectation which desire engendered while she was at a distance from reality she had formed an image in her mind of instantaneous change when she would set her foot on grecian shores she fancied that raymond would already be free and that her tender attentions would come to entirely obliterate even the memory of his mischance But his fate was still uncertain. She began to fear the worst, and to feel that her soul's hope was cast on a chance that might prove a blank. The wife and lovely child of Lord Raymond became objects of intense interest in Athens.

Starting point is 06:50:54 The gates of their abode were besieged. Audible prayers were breathed for his restoration. All these circumstances added to the dismay and fears of Perdita. My exertions were unremitted. after a time I left Athens and joined the army stationed at Kishan in Thrace. Bribery threats and intrigue soon discovered the secret that Raymond was alive, a prisoner, suffering the most rigorous confinement and wanton cruelties. We put in movement every impulse of policy and money to redeem him from their hands.

Starting point is 06:51:28 The impatience of my sister's disposition now returned on her, awakened by repentance, sharpened by remorse. The very beauty of the Grecian climate During the season of spring Added torture to her sensations The unexampled loveliness of the flower-clad earth The genial sunshine and grateful shade The melody of the birds

Starting point is 06:51:51 The majesty of the woods The splendor of the marble ruins The clear effulgence of the stars by night The combination of all that was exciting and voluptuous In this transcending land By inspiring a quickestine her spirit of life, and in added sensitiveness to every articulation of her frame, only gave edge to the poignancy of her grief. Each long hour was counted, and he suffers was the

Starting point is 06:52:18 burden of all her thoughts. She abstained from food, she lay on the bare earth, and by such mimicry of his enforced torments, endeavoured to hold communion with his distant pain. I remembered in one of her harshest moments a quotation of mine had roused. to anger and disdain. Perdita, I had said, Someday you will discover that you have done wrong and again casting Raymond on the thorns of life.

Starting point is 06:52:46 When disappointment has sullied his beauty, when a soldier's hardships have bent his manly form, and loneliness made even triumph bitter to him, then you will repent, and regret for the irreparable change, will move in hearts all rocky now, the late remorse of love, the stinging remorse of love.

Starting point is 06:53:05 now pierced her heart. She accused herself of his journey to Greece, his dangers, his imprisonment. She pictured to herself the anguish of his solitude. She remembered with what eager delight he had in former days made her the partner of his joyful hopes, with what grateful affection he received her sympathy in his cares. She called to mind, how often he had declared that solitude was to him the greatest of all evils, and how death itself was to him more full of fear and pain, when he pictured to himself a lonely grave. My best girl, he had said, Relieves me from these fantasies.

Starting point is 06:53:40 United to her, cherished in her dear heart, never again shall I know the misery of finding myself alone. Even if I die before you, my predita. Treasure up my ashes till yours may mingle with mine. It is a foolish sentiment for one who is not a materialist.

Starting point is 06:53:57 Yet, methinks, even in that dark cell, I may feel that my inanimate dust mingles with yours, and thus have a companion in decay. In her resentful mood these expressions had been remembered with acrimony and disdain. They visited her in her softened hour, taking sleep from her eyes, all hope of rest from her uneasy mind.

Starting point is 06:54:18 Two months passed thus, when at last we obtained a promise of Raymond's release, confinement and hardship had undermined its health. The Turks feared an accomplishment of the threats of the English government if he died under their hands. They looked upon her. her recovery as impossible, they delivered him up as a dying man, willingly making over to us

Starting point is 06:54:39 the rights of burial. He came by sea from Constantinople to Athens. The wind, favorable to him, blew so strongly in shore, that we were unable, as we had at first intended, to meet him on his watery road. The watchtower of Athens was besieged by inquirers, each sail eagerly looked out for, till on the first of May the gallant frigate bore in sight, freighted with treasure more invaluable than the wealth which, piloted from Mexico, the vexed Pacific swallowed, or that was conveyed over its tranquil bosom to enrich the crown of Spain. At early dawn the vessel was discovered bearing inshore. It was conjectured that it would cast anchor about five miles from land. The news spread through Athens, and the whole city poured. out at the gate of the Piraeus. Down the roads, through the vineyards, the olive woods and plantations of fig leaves towards the harbour.

Starting point is 06:55:41 The noisy joy of the populace, the gaudy colours of their dress, the tumult of carriages and horses, the march of soldiers intermixed, the waving of banners and sound of martial music added to the high excitement of the scene, while round us reposed, in solemn majesty the relics of ancient time.

Starting point is 06:56:01 To our right the Acropolis rose high, spectatists of a thousand changes of ancient glory, Turkish slavery, and the restoration of deer bought liberty. Tumes and cenotaphs were strewn thick around, adorned by every renewing vegetation. The mighty dead hovered over their monuments, and beheld in our enthusiasm, and congregated numbers a renewal of the scenes in which they had been the actors. Padita and Clara rode in a close character, i attended them on horseback at length we arrived at the harbour it was agitated by the outward swell of the sea the beach as far as could be discerned was covered by a moving multitude which urged by those behind toward the sea again rushed back as the heavy waves with sullen roar burst close to them i applied my glass and could discern that the frigate had a ready cast anchor fearful of the danger of approaching nearer to a lee shore

Starting point is 06:57:01 a boat was lowered with a pang i saw that raymond was unable to descend the vessel's side he was let down in a chair and lay wrapped in cloaks at the bottom of the boat I dismounted and called to some sailors who were rowing about the harbor to pull up and take me into their skiff. Perdita at the same moment, alighted from her carriage, she seized my arm. Take me with you, she cried. She was trembling and pale. Clara clung to her, You must not, I said. The sea is rough. He will soon be here. Do you not see his boat? The little bark to which I had beckoned had now pulled up. Before I could stop her, Padita, assisted by the sailors, was in it. Clara followed her mother. A loud shout echoed from the crowd as we pulled out of the inner harbor. While my sister at the prow had caught hold of one of the men who was using a glass,

Starting point is 06:57:53 asking a thousand questions careless of the spray that broke over her, death sightless to all except the little speck that just visible on the top of the waves, evidently neared. We approach with all the speeds six rowers could give, the orderly and picturesque dress of the soldiers on the beach, the sounds of exulting music, the stirring breeze and waving flags, the unchecked exclamations of the eager crowd, whose dark looks and foreign garb were purely eastern, the sight of temple-crowned rock, the white marble of the buildings glittering in the sun, and standing in bright relief against the dark ridge of lofty mountains beyond.

Starting point is 06:58:35 The near roar of the sea, the splash, of oars and dash of spray all steeped my soul in a delirium, unfelt, unimagined in the common course of common life. Trembling, I was unable to continue to look through the glass, with which I had watched the motion of the crew when the frigate's boat had first been launched. We rapidly drew near, so that at length the number and forms of those within could be discerned, its dark sides grew big, and the splash of its oars became audible. I could distinguish the languid form of my friend, as he half raised himself at our approach. Padita's questions had ceased. She leaned on my arm, panting with emotions too acute for tears. Our men pulled alongside the other boat. As a last effort, my sister mustered her strength, her firmness. She stepped from one boat to the other, and then with a shriek she sprang towards Raymond, knelt at his side, and gluing her lips to the hand.

Starting point is 06:59:37 She seized, her face shrouded by her long hair, gave herself up to tears. Raymond had somewhat raised himself at our approach. But it was with difficulty that he exerted himself even thus much. With sunken cheek and hollow eyes, pale and gaunt, how could I recognise the beloved of Perdita? I continued all struck and mute. He looked smilingly on the poor girl. The smile was his.

Starting point is 07:00:04 A day of sunshine falling on a dark front. Valley, displays its beforehand characteristics. And now this smile, the same with which he first spoke love to Perdita, with which he had welcomed the perfectorate, playing on his altered countenance, made me in my heart's core feel that this was Raymond. He stretched out to me his other hand. I discern the trace of manacles on his bared wrist. I heard my sister's sobs and thought, happy are women who can weep, and in a passionate caress, disperthen the oppression of their feelings. Shame and habitual restraint hold back a man.

Starting point is 07:00:49 I would have given worlds to have acted as in days of boyhood, have strained him to my breast, pressed his hand to my lips, and wept over him. My swelling heart choked me. The natural current would not be checked, the big rebellious tears gathered in my eyes. I turned aside, and they dropped in the sea. They came fast and faster, yet I could hardly be ashamed,

Starting point is 07:01:17 for I saw that the rough sailors were not unmoved, and Raymond's eyes alone were dry from among our crew. He lay in that blessed calm which convalescence always induces, enjoying insecure tranquility his liberty and reunion with her whom he adored. perdita at length subdued her burst of passion and rose she looked round for clara the child frightened not recognizing her father and neglected by us had crept to the other end of the boat she came at her mother's call fordita presented her to raymond her first words were beloved embrace our child come hither sweet one said her father do you not know me She knew his voice, and cast herself in his arms with half-bashful but uncontrollable emotion. Perceiving the weakness of Raymond, I was afraid of ill consequences from the pressure of the crowd on his landing.

Starting point is 07:02:18 But they were awed as I had been, at the change of his appearance. The music died away, the shouts abruptly ended. The soldiers had cleared a space in which a carriage was drawn up. He was placed in it. Perdita and Clara entered with him, and his essence. The escort closed round it. A hollow murmur, akin to the roaring of the near waves, went through the multitude. They fell back as the carriage advanced, and fearful of injuring him they had come to welcome. By loud testimonies of joy they satisfied themselves with bending in a low salam as the carriage passed. It went slowly along the road of the Piraeus, passed by antique temple and heroic tomb, beneath the craggy rock of the citadel. the sound of the ways was left behind that of the multitude continued at intervals suppressed and hoarse and though in the city the houses churches and public buildings were decorated with tapestry and banners though the soldiery lined the streets and the inhabitants in thousands were assembled to give him hail

Starting point is 07:03:24 the same solemn silence prevailed a soldiery presented arms the banners veiled many a white hand waved a streamer and vainly sought to discern the hero in the vehicle which closed and encompassed by the city guards drew him to the palace allotted for his abode raymond was weak and exhausted yet the interest he perceived to be excited on his account filled him with proud pleasure he was nearly killed with kindness it is true the populace retained themselves but there arose a perpetual hum and bustle from the throng round the palace which added to the noise of fireworks the frequent explosion of arms the tramp to and fro of horsemen and carriages to which effervescence he was the focus retarded his recovery so he retired a while to Elyusis. And here, rest and tender care added each day to the strength of our invalid. The zealous attention of Perdita claimed the first rank in the causes which induced his rapid recovery. But the second was surely the delight he felt in the affection and goodwill of the Greeks. We are said to love much those whom we greatly benefit.

Starting point is 07:04:38 Raymond had fought and conquered for the Athenians. He had suffered on their account, peril. imprisonment and hardship. The gratitude affected him deeply, and he inly vowed to unite his fate forever to that of a people so enthusiastically devoted to him. Social feeling and sympathy constituted a marked feature in my disposition. In early youth, the living drama acted around me, drew me heart and soul into its vortex. I was now conscious of a change. I loved, I hoped, I enjoyed, but there was something besides this. I was inquisitive as to the internal principles of action of those around me,

Starting point is 07:05:21 anxious to read their thoughts justly, and forever occupied in divining their inmost mind. All events at the same time that they deeply interested me arranged themselves in pictures before me. I gave the right place to every personage in the group, the just balance to every sentiment, this undercurrent of thought, often soothe me amidst distress and even agony. It gave ideality to that from which taken in naked truth the soul would have revolted. It bestowed pictorial colors on misery and disease, and not unfrequently relieve me from despair and deplorable changes.

Starting point is 07:06:02 This faculty or instinct was now roused. I watched the reawakened devotion of my sister, Clara's timid but concentrated admiration of her father, and Raymond's appetite for renown, and sensitiveness to the demonstrations of affection of the Athenians, attentively perusing this animated volume, I was the less surprise at the tale I read on the new-turned page. The Turkish army were at this time besieging Rodosto,

Starting point is 07:06:33 and the Greeks hastening their preparations and sending each day reinforcements were on the eve of forcing the enemy to battle. Each people looked on the coming struggle as that which would be to a great degree decisive, as, in case of victory, the next step would be the siege of Constantinople by the Greeks. Raymond being somewhat recovered, prepared to reassume his command in the army. Perdita did not oppose herself to his determination. she only stipulated to be permitted to accompany him. She had set down no rule of conduct for herself, but for her life she could not have opposed his slightest wish,

Starting point is 07:07:16 or do other than acquiesced cheerfully in all his projects. One word in truth had alarmed her more than battles or sieges, during which she trusted Raymond's high command would exempt him from danger. That word, as yet it was, not more to her, was plague. this enemy to the human race had begun early in june to raise its serpent head in the shores of the nile parts of asia not usually subject to this evil were infected it was in constantinople but as each year that city experienced a like visitation small attention was paid to those accounts which declared more people to have died there already than usually made up the accustomed prey of the whole of the hotter months however it might be neither plague nor war could prevent predita from following her lord or induce her to utter one objection to the plans which he proposed to be near him to be loved by him to feel him again her own was the limit of her desires the object of her life was to do him pleasure it had been so before but with a difference in past times without thought or foresight she had made him happy being so herself

Starting point is 07:08:31 and in all questions of choice consulted her own wishes as being one with his now she sedulously put herself out of the question sacrificing even her anxiety for her health and welfare to a resolve not to oppose any of his desires love of the greek people appetite for glory and hatred of the barbarian government under which he had suffered even to the approach of death stimulated him He wished to repay the kindness of the Athenians, to keep alive the splendid associations connected with his name, and to eradicate from Europe a power which, while every other nation advanced in civilization, stood still, a monument of antique barbarism. Having affected the reunion of Raymond and Padeta, I was eager to return to England. But his earnest request, added to awakening curiosity, and an indefinable anxiety to behold the catathe, catastrophe, now apparently at hand, in the long-drawn history of Grecian and Turkish warfare,

Starting point is 07:09:38 induced me to consent to prolong until the autumn, the period of my residence in Greece. As soon as the health of Raymond was sufficiently re-established, he prepared to join the Grecian camp. Here, Kishan, a town of some importance, situated to the east of the Hebrus, in which Perdita and Clara were to remain until the event of the expected battle. Whitted Athens on the 2nd of June, Raymond had recovered from the gaunt and pallid looks of fever. If I no longer saw the fresh glow of youth on his matured countenance, if care had besieged his brow and dug deep trenches in his beauties field, if his hair slightly mingled with grey and his look considerate even in its eagerness,

Starting point is 07:10:22 gave signs of added years and past sufferings. Yet there was something irresistibly affecting in the sight of one, lately snatched from the grave, renewing his career, untamed by sickness or disaster, the Athenians saw on him not as heretofore the heroic boy or desperate man who was ready to die for them, but the prudent commander, who for their sakes was careful of his life, and could make his own warrior propensities second to the scheme of conduct policy might point out. All Athens accompanied us for several miles. When he had landed a month ago, the noisy populace had been hushed by sorrow and fear.

Starting point is 07:11:03 But this was a festival day to all. The air resounded with their shouts, their picturesque costume, and the gay colours of which it was composed, flaunted in the sunshine. Their eager gestures and rapid utterance accorded with their wild appearance. Raymond was the theme of every tongue, the hope of each wife, mother or betrothed bride, whose husband, child or lover, making a part of the Greek army, were to be conducted to victory by him. Notwithstanding the hazardous object of our journey, it was full of romantic interest as we passed through the valleys and over the hills of this divine country. Raymond was inspirited by the intense sensations of recovered health. He felt that in being general of the Athenians he filled a postworthy of his ambition.

Starting point is 07:11:51 And in his hope of the conquest of Constantinople, he counted on an event. which would be as a landmark in the waste of ages, an exploit unequalled in the annals of man, when a city of grand historic association, the beauty of whose sight was the wonder of the world, which, for many hundred years had been the stronghold of the Muslims, should be rescued from slavery and barbarism, and restored to a people illustrious for genius, civilization, and a spirit of liberty. Padita rested on his restored society, on his love, his hopes and fame, even as a cyborite on a luxurious couch, every thought was transport, each emotion bathed as it were in a congenial and balmy element. We arrived at Kishan on the 7th of July.

Starting point is 07:12:38 The weather during our journey had been serene. Each day before dawn we left our night's encampment and watched the shadows as they retreated from hill and valley and the golden splendor of the sun's approach. The accompanying soldiers received with national, vivacity, enthusiastic pleasure from the sight of beautiful nature. The uprising of the star of day was hailed by triumphant strains, while the birds, heard by snatches, filled up the intervals of the music. At noon we pitched our tents in some shady valley, or embowering wood among the mountains, while a stream prattling over pebbles induced grateful sleep. Our evening march, more calm, was yet more delightful than the morning restlessness of spirit.

Starting point is 07:13:23 if the band played involuntarily they chose airs of moderated passion the farewell of love or lament at absence was followed and closed by some solemn hymn which harmonized with the tranquil loveliness of evening and elevated the soul to grand and religious thought often all sounds were suspended that we might listen to the nightingale while the fireflies danced in bright measure and the soft cooling of the spoke of fair weather to the travellers did we pass a valley soft shades encompassed us and rocks tinged with beauteous hues if we traversed a mountain greece a living map was spread beneath her renowned pinnacles cleaving the ether her rivers threading in silver lie in the fertile land afraid almost to breathe we english travellers surveyed with ecstasy this splendid landscape so different from the sober hues and melancholy graces of our native scenery when we quitted macedonia the fertile but low plains of thrace afforded fewer beauties yet our journey continued to be interesting an advance guard gave information of our approach and the country people were quickly in motion to do honour to lord raymond the villages were decorated by triumphal arches of greenery by day and lamps by night tapestry waved from the windows the ground was strewed with flowers and the name of raymond joined to that of greece was echoed in the aviv of the peasant crowd when we arrived at kishan we learned that on hearing of the advance of lord raymond and his detachment the turkish army had retreated from rhodosto but meeting with the reinforcement they had retrod their steps in the meantime

Starting point is 07:15:18 argyaropilo the greek commander-in-chief had advanced so as to be between the turks and rhodosto a battle it was said was inevitable butita and her child were to remain at kishan raymond asked me if i would not continue with them now by the fells of cumberland i cried by all of the vagabondon poacher that appertains to me i will stand at your side draw my sword in the greek cause and be hailed as a victor along with you. All the plain from Kishan to Radosto, a distance of 16 leagues, was alive with troops, or with the camp followers, all in motion at the approach of a battle. The small garrisons were drawn from the various towns and fortresses, and went to swell the main army. We met baggage wagons, and many females of high and low rank returning to Fairy or Keishan,

Starting point is 07:16:16 there to wait the issue of the expected day. When we arrived at Redosto, we found that the field had been taken, and the scheme of the battle arranged. The sound of firing, early on the following morning, informed us that advanced posts of the armies were engaged. Regiment after regiment advanced, their colours flying and bands playing, they planted the cannon on the tumuli, sole elevations in this level country,

Starting point is 07:16:44 and formed themselves into column, and hollow square, while the pioneers threw up small mounds for their protection. These then were the preparations for a battle, nay the battle itself, far different from anything the imagination had pictured. We read of center and wing in Greek and Roman history. We fancy a spot, plain as a table, and soldiers small as chessmen, and drawn forth, so that the most ignorant of the game can discover science and order in the disposition of the forces. When I came to the reality, and saw regiments fire off to the left far out of sight, fields intervening between the battalions, but a few troops sufficiently near me to observe their motions.

Starting point is 07:17:28 I gave up all idea of understanding, even of seeing a battle, but attaching myself to Raymond, attended with intense interest to his actions. He showed himself collected, gallant, and imperial. His commands were prompt, his intuition of the events of the day, to me miraculous. In the meantime the cannon roared, the music lifted up its enlivening voice at intervals, and we on the highest of the mounds I mentioned, too far off to observe the fallen sheaves which death gathered into his storehouse. Beheld the regiments now lost in smoke, now banners and staves peering above the cloud, while shout and clamour drowned every sound. Early in the day, Arjiropolo was wounded dangerously, and Raymond assumed the command of the whole army.

Starting point is 07:18:17 He made few remarks, till on observing through his glass, the sequel of an order he had given, his face clouded for a while with doubt, became radiant. The day is ours, he cried. The Turks fly from the bayonet, and then swiftly he dispatched his aides to camp to command the horse to fall in the routed enemy. The defeat became total. The cannon ceased to roar. The infantry rallied, and horse-washed.

Starting point is 07:18:43 pursued the flying turks along the dreary plain, the staff of Raymond was dispersed in various directions to make observations and bear commands. Even I was dispatched to a distant part of the field. The ground on which the battle was fought was a level plain, so level that from the tumuli, you saw the waving line of mountains on the wide-stretched horizon, yet the intervening space was unvaryed by the least irregularity, save such undulations as resembled the waves of the sea, sea. The whole of this part of Thrace had been so long a scene of contest that it had remained uncultivated, and presented a dreary barren appearance. The order I had received was to make an observation of the direction which a attachment of the enemy might have taken from a northern

Starting point is 07:19:31 tumulus. The whole Turkish army followed by the Greek had poured eastward. None but the dead remained in the direction of my side. From the top of the mound I looked far round. All was silent, and deserted. The last beams of the nearly sun shot up from behind the far summit of Mount Athos. The sea of Marmora still glittered beneath its rays, while the Asiatic coast beyond was half hid in the haze of a low cloud. Many a cask and bayonet and sword fallen from unnerved arms reflected the departing ray. They lay scattered far and near.

Starting point is 07:20:10 From the east, a band of ravens, inhabitants of the Turkish cemeteries came sailing along towards their harvest. The sun disappeared. This hour, melancholy at sweet, has always seemed to me the time when we are most naturally led to commune with higher powers. Our mortal sternness departs and gentle complacency invests the soul. But now, in the midst of the dying and the dead, how could a thought of heaven or sensation of tranquility possess one of the murderers? During the busy day, my mind had yielded itself a willing slave to the state of things presented to it by its fellow beings. Historical association, hatred of the foe, and military enthusiasm had held dominion over me.

Starting point is 07:20:56 Now I looked on the evening star, as softly and calmly it hung pendulous in the orange hues of sunset, I turned to the coarse-strewn earth and felt ashamed of my species. So perhaps were the placid skies, for they quickly veiled themselves in mist, and in this change assisted the swift disappearance of twilight usual in the south. Heavy masses of cloud floated up from the southeast, and red and turbid lightning shot from their dark edges. The rushing wind disturbed the garments of the dead, and was chilled as it passed over their icy forms.

Starting point is 07:21:32 Darkness gathered round, the objects about me became indistinct, I distended from my station, and with difficulty guided my horse so as to avoid the slain. Suddenly I heard a piercing shriek. A form seemed to rise from the earth. It flew swiftly towards me, sinking to the ground again as it drew near. All this passed so suddenly that I, with difficulty, reigned in my horse so that it should not trample on the prostrate being. The dress of this person was that of a soldier. But the bared neck and arms and the continued shrieks discovered a female thus disguised, I dismounted to her aid, while she, with heavy groans and her hand placed on her side, resisted my attempt to lead her on. In the hurry of the moment I forgot that I was in Greece,

Starting point is 07:22:21 and in my native accents endeavoured to soothe the sufferer. With wild and terrific exclamations did the lost dying Evadne, for, it was she, recognized the language of her lover, pain and fear from her wound had deranged her intellects, while her piteous cries in feeble efforts to escape penetrated me with compassion. In wild delirium, she called upon the name of Raymond. She exclaimed that I was keeping him from her, while the Turks with fearful instruments of torture were about to take his life. Then again she sadly lamented her hard fate,

Starting point is 07:22:55 that a woman with a woman's heart and sensibility should be driven by hopeless love and vacant hopes to take up the trade of arms and suffer beyond the endurance of man privation, labour and pain, the while her dry, hot hands pressed mine, and her brow and lips burn with consuming fire. As her strength grew less, I lifted her from the ground. Her emaciated form hung over my arm, her sunken cheek rested on my breast. In a sepulchral voice she murmured,

Starting point is 07:23:26 This is the end of love, yet not the end. frenzy lent her strength as she cast her arm up to heaven. There is the end. There we meet again. Many living deaths have I borne for thee, O Raymond. And now I expire, thy victim. By my death I purchase thee. Lo, the instruments of war, fire the plague of my servitors. I dared, I conquer them all. Till now, I have sold myself to death. with the sole condition that thou shouldst follow me fire war and plague unite for thy destruction o my raymond there is no safety for thee with a heavy heart i listened to the changes of her delirium i made her a bed of cloaks her violence decreased and a clammy jew stood on her brow as the paleness of death succeeded to the crimson of fever i placed her on the cloaks she continued to rindsum of fever i placed her on the cloaks she continued to rinds of her speedy meeting with her beloved in the grave, of his death nigh at hand,

Starting point is 07:24:37 sometimes she solemnly declared that he was summoned, sometimes she bewailed his hard destiny. Her voice grew feebler, her speech interrupted, a few convulsive movements, and her muscles relaxed. The limbs fell, no more to be sustained. One deep sigh, and life was gone. I bore her from the near neighbourhood of the dead, Wrapped in cloaks, I placed her beneath a tree.

Starting point is 07:25:05 Once more I looked on her altered face. The last time I saw her she was 18. Beautiful as poet's vision. Splendid as a sultana of the East. Twelve years had passed. Twelve years of change, sorrow, and hardship. Her brilliant complexion had become worn and dark. Her limbs had lost the roundness of youth and womanhood.

Starting point is 07:25:28 Her eyes had sunk deep, crushed and overworn. the hours had drained her blood and filled her brow with lines and wrinkles with shuddering horror i veiled this monument of human passion and human misery i heaped over her all of flags and heavy accoutrements i could find to guard her from birds and beasts of prey until i could bestow on her a fitting grave sadly and slowly i stemmed my cause from among the heaps of slain and guided by the twinkling lights of the town At length reached Rodosto. End of Volume 2, Chapter 1. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, visit Libravox.org.

Starting point is 07:26:30 Recorded by Colin McRoberts. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 2, Chapter 2. On my arrival, I found that an order had already gone forth for the army to proceed immediately toward Constantinople, and the troops, which had suffered least in the battle, were already on their way. The town was full of tumult. The wound and consequent inability of Argaropolo caused Raymond to be the first in command. He rode through the town, visiting the wounded and giving such orders as were necessary for the siege he meditated. Early in the morning, the whole army was in motion in the hurry.

Starting point is 07:27:09 I could already find an opportunity to bestow the last offices on Evadne. Attended only by my servant, I dug a deep grave for her at the foot of the tree. And without disturbing her warrior's shroud, I placed her in it, heaping stones upon the grave. The dazzling sun and glare of daylight deprived the scene of solemnity. From Evadne's low tomb, I joined Raymond and his staff, now on their way to the Golden City. Constantinople was invested, trenches dug, and advances made. The whole Greek fleet blockaded it by sea

Starting point is 07:27:40 On land from the river Kayak Bana Near the sweet waters To the Tower of Marmosa On the shores of the Propontas Along the whole line of the ancient walls The trenches of the siege were drawn We already possessed Perra

Starting point is 07:27:53 The Golden Horn itself, The city bastioned by the sea And the ivy-mantled walls Of the Greek emperors Was all of Europe That the Mohammedans could call theirs Our army looked on her As certain prey

Starting point is 07:28:05 They counted the garrison It was impossible that should be revealed. Each sally was a victory, for even when the Turks were triumphant, the loss of men they sustained was an irreparable injury. I rode one morning with Raymond to the lofty mound, not far from the top Capo cannon gate, on which Mahumad planted his standard and first saw the city. Still, the same lofty domes and minarets towered above the verdurus walls where Constantinople had died, and the Turk had entered the city. The plain around was interspersed with cemeteries, Turk, Greek, and Armenian, growth of cypress trees and other woods of more cheerful aspect diversified the scene among them the greek army was encamped and their squadrons moved to and fro now in regular march now in swift career raymond's eyes were fixed on the city

Starting point is 07:28:51 i have counted the hours of her life said he one month and she falls remain with me till then wait until you see the cross on st sophia and then return to your peaceful glades you then i asked still remain in greece assuredly replied raymond yet lionel when i say this this. Believe me, I look back with regret on our tranquil life at Windsor. I am but half a soldier. I love the renown, but not the trade of war. Before the Battle of Redosto, I was full of hope and spirit. To conquer there, and afterwards to take Constantinople, was the hope, the born, the fulfillment of my ambition. This enthusiasm is now spent. I know not why. I seem to myself to be entering a darksome gulf. The ardent spirit of the army is irksome to me. The rapture of triumph, null. He paused, and was lost in thought. His serious mind recalled by some association the half-forgotten Evadne to my mind, and I seized this opportunity to make inquiries from him concerning her strange lot. I asked him

Starting point is 07:29:49 if he had ever seen among the troops anyone resembling her, if since he had returned to Greece, he had heard of her. He started at her name. He looked uneasy on me. Even so, he cried, I knew you would speak of her. Long, long, I had forgotten her. Since our encampment here, she daily, hourly visits my thoughts. When I am addressed, her name is the sound I expect. In every communication, I imagine that she will form apart. At length, you have broken the spell. Tell me what you know of her.

Starting point is 07:30:18 I related my meeting with her. The story of her death was told and retold, with painful earnestness. He questioned me concerning her prophecies with regard to him. I treated them as the ravings of a maniac. No, no, he said, do not deceive yourself. Me, you cannot. she has said nothing but what i knew before though this is confirmation fire the sword and plague they may all be found in yonder city on my head alone may they fall from this day raymond's melancholy increased he secluded himself as much as the duties of his station permitted when in company sadness would in spite of every effort steal over his features and they sat absent and mute among the busy crowd that thronged about him

Starting point is 07:30:59 Perdita rejoined him, and before her he forced himself to appear cheerful, for she, even as a mirror, changed as he changed. And if he were silent and anxious, she solicitously inquired concerning an endeavor to remove the cause of his seriousness. She resided at the palace of sweet waters, a summer seraglio of the sultan, the beauty of the surrounding scenery, undefiled by war and the freshness of the river, made this spot doubly delightful. Raymond felt no relief, received no pleasure from any show of heaven or earth. He often left Perdita and wandered into the grounds alone, or, in a light shallop, he floated idly on the pure waters, musing deeply. Sometimes I joined him. At such times, his countenance was invariably solemn, his air dejected. He seemed relieved on seeing me, and would talk with some degree of interest on the affairs of the day. There was evidently something behind all this.

Starting point is 07:31:56 Yet, when he appeared about to speak of that which was nearest his heart, he would abruptly turn away, and with a sigh, endeavor to deliver the painful idea to the winds. It had often occurred that when, as I said, Raymond quitted Perdita's drawing room, Clara came up to me, and gently drawing me aside, said, Papa is gone. Shall we go to him? I dare say he will be glad to see you. And, as accident permitted, I complied with or refused her request. One evening, a numerous assembly of Greek chieftains were gathered together in the palace. The intriguing Pali, the accomplished Caraza, the warlike Ipsilanti, were among the principal. They talked of the events of the day, the skirmish at noon, the diminished numbers of infidels, their defeat and flight. They contemplated, after a short interval of time, the capture of the golden city. They endeavored to picture forth what would happen, and spoke in lofty terms of the prosperity of Greece,

Starting point is 07:32:54 Constantinople should become its capital. The conversation then reverted to Asiatic intelligence, and the ravages the plague made in its chief cities. Conjectures were hazarded as to the progress that disease might have made in the besieged city. Raymond had joined the former part of the discussion. In lively terms, he demonstrated the extremities to which Constantinople was reduced. The wasted and haggard, though ferocious appearance of the troops, famine and pestilence was at work for them. he observed, and the infidels would soon be obliged to take refuge in their only hope, submission. Suddenly, in the midst of his harangue, he broke off, as if stung by some painful thought. He rose uneasily, and I perceived him, at length, quit the hall, and, through the long

Starting point is 07:33:40 corridor, seek the open air. He did not return, and soon, Clara crept round to me, making the accustomed invitation. I consented to her request, and, taking her little hand, followed Raymond. We found him just about to embark on his boat, and he readily agreed just as companions. After the heats of the day, the cooling land breeze ruffled the river and filled our little sail. The city looked dark to the south, while numerous lights along the near shores and the beautiful aspect of the banks, reposing in placid night. The waters, keenly reflecting, the heavenly lights, gave to this beauteous river a dower of loveliness that might have characterized a retreat in paradise. boatman attended to the sale. Raymond steered. Clara sat at his feet, clasping his knees with her arms and laying her head on them. Raymond began the conversation somewhat abruptly. This, my friend,

Starting point is 07:34:34 is probably the last time we shall have an opportunity of conversing freely. My plans are now in full operation, and my time will become more and more occupied, besides, I wish at once to tell you my wishes and expectations, and then, never again, to revert to so painful a subject. First, I must thank you, Lionel, for having remained here at my request. Vanity first prompted me to ask you, vanity I call it. Yet even in this, I see the hand of fate, your presence will soon be necessary. You will become the last resource for Perdita, her protector, and consoler. You will take her back to Windsor. Not without you, I said. You do not mean to separate again. Do not deceive yourself, replied Raymond. The separation at hand is one over which I have no control. Most near at hand

Starting point is 07:35:21 is it. The days are already counted. May I trust you? For many days I have long to disclose the mysterious presentiments that weigh on me, although I fear that you will ridicule them. Yet do not, my gentle friend, for all childish and unwise as they are, they have become a part of me, and I dare not expect to shake them off. Yet how can I expect you to sympathize with me? You are of this world. I am not. You hold forth your hand. It is even as a part of yourself, and you do not yet divide the feeling of identity from the mortal form that shapes forth Lionel. How then can you understand me? Earth is to me a tomb. The firmament of vault, shrouding mere corruption, time is no more, for I have stepped within the threshold of eternity. Each man I meet appears

Starting point is 07:36:08 a corpse, which will soon be deserted of its animating spark on the eve of decay and corruption. every pietra a pyramid levanta and cadae flora castruhe a momento c'a facio is a sepulchro altivo cade a soldado an escaletto vivo his accent was mournful he sighed deeply a few months ago i was thought to be but life was strong within me my affections were human hope and love with the day stars of my life now they dreamed the bright of the rouse of the conqueror of the infidel faith are about to be encircled by triumphant laurel. They talk of honorable reward, of title, power, and wealth. All I ask of Greece is a grave. Let them raise a mound above my lifeless body, which may stand even when the dome of St. Sophia has fallen. Wherefore do I feel this? At Rodosto I was full of hope, but when first I saw Constantinople, that feeling with every other joyful one departed.

Starting point is 07:37:14 The last words of Avodne were the seal upon the warrant of my death, yet I do not pretend to account for my mood by any particular event. All I can say is that it is so. The plague, I am told, is in Constantinople. Perhaps I have imbibed its effluvia. Perhaps disease is the real cause of my prognostications. It matters little why or wherefore I am affected. No power can ever get the stroke. and the shadow of fate's uplifted hand already darkens me.

Starting point is 07:37:46 To you, Lionel, I entrust your sister and her child, never mention to her the fatal name of Avodny. She would doubly sorrow over the strange link that enchains me to her, making my spirit obey her dying voice, following her, as it is about to do to the unknown country. I listened to him with wonder, but that his sad demeanor and solemn utterance assured me of the truth and intensity of his feeling,

Starting point is 07:38:12 I should with light derision have attempted to dissipate his fears. Whatever I was about to reply was interrupted by the powerful emotions of Clara. Raymond had spoken, thoughtless of her presence, and she, poor child, heard with terror and faith the prophecy of his death. Her father was moved by her violent grief, and took her in his arms and soothed her, but his very soothings were solemn and fearful. Weep not, sweet child, he said.

Starting point is 07:38:40 The coming death of one you have. have already known, I may die, but in death I can never forget or desert my own Clara. In after sorrow or joy, believe that your father's spirit is near to save or sympathize with you. Be proud of me and cherish your infant remembrance of me. Thus, sweetest, I shall not appear to die. I promise. Not speak to anyone but your uncle of the conversation you have just overheard. When I am gone, you will console your mother and tell her that death was only bitter because it divided me from her, that my last thoughts will be spent on her. But while I live, promise not to betray me, promised child. With faltering accents, Clara promised, while she still

Starting point is 07:39:25 clung to her father in a transport of sorrow. Soon we returned to shore, and I endeavored to obviate the impression made on the child's mind by treating Raymond's fears lightly. We heard no more of them, for as he had said, the siege, now drawing to a conclusion, became. paramount interest, engaging all his time and attention. The Empire of the Muhammadans in Europe was at its close. The Greek fleet, blockading every port of Istanbul, prevented the arrival of succor from Asia. All egress on the side toward land had become impracticable,

Starting point is 07:40:02 except to such desperate sallies as reduced the number of the enemy without making any impression on our lines. The garrison was now so much diminished that it was evident that the city could easily have been carried by storm, but humanity and policy dictated a slower mode proceeding. We could hardly doubt that, if pursued to the utmost, its palaces, its temples, and stores of wealth, could be destroyed in the fury of contending triumph and defeat. Already the defenseless citizens had suffered through the barbarity of the Janissaries, and in time of storm, tumult and massacre, beauty, infancy, and decrepitude would have alike been sacrificed to the brutal ferocity of the soldiers.

Starting point is 07:40:50 Famine and blockade were certain means of conquest. On these, we founded our hopes of victory. Each day, the soldiers of the garrison assaulted our advanced posts and impeded the accomplishment of our works. Fireboats were launched from various ports, while our troops sometimes recoiled from the devoted courage of men who did not seek to live, but to sell their lives dearly. These contests were aggravated by the season. They took place during summer when the southern Asiatic wind came laden with intolerable heat, when the streams were dried up in their shallow beds, and the vast basin of the sea appeared to glow under the unmitigated rays of the solstitial sun. Nor did night refresh the earth. Dew was denied. Burbage and flower were none. The very trees droop.

Starting point is 07:41:38 and summer assured the blighted appearance of winter as it went forth in silence and flame to abridge the means of sustenance to man in vain did the eye strive to find the wreck of some northern cloud in the stainless imperian which might bring hope of change and moisture to the oppressive and windless atmosphere all was serene burning annihilating we the besiegers were the comparison little affected by these evils the woods around a-round of fourswicked to beailleous and the wits around a farcepherson little affected by these evils the woods around a far forted as shade. The river secured to us a constant supply of water, nay, detachments were employed in furnishing the army with ice, which had been laid up on Hamus and Athos and the mountains of Macedonia, while cooling fruits and wholesome food, renovated the strength of the laborers, and made us bear, with less impatience, the weight of the unrefreshing air. But in the city, things wore a different face. The sun's rays were refracted from the pavement and buildings. the stoppage of the public fountains, the bad quality of the food, and scarcity, even of that,

Starting point is 07:42:43 produced a state of suffering, which was aggravated by the scourge of disease. While the garrison irrigated every superfluity to themselves, adding by waste and riot to the necessary evils of the time, still they would not capitulate. Suddenly, the system of warfare was changed. We experienced no more assaults, and by night and day we continued our labors unimpeded. Stranger still, when the troops advanced near the city, the walls were vacant, and no cannon was pointed against the intruders. When these circumstances were reported to Raymond, he caused minute observations to be made as to what was doing with the walls. And when his scouts returned, reporting only the continued silence and desolation of the city, he commanded the army to be drawn out before the gates.

Starting point is 07:43:31 No one appeared on the walls. The very portals, though locked and barred, seemed unguarded. Above the many domes, the glittering, crescents pierced heaven, while the old walls, survivors of ages, with ivy-crown tower and weed-entangled buttress, stood as rocks in an uninhabited waste. From within the city, neither shout nor cry, nor aught except the casual howling of a dog, broke the noonday stillness. Even our soldiers were odd to silence. The music paused. The clang of arms was hushed. Each man asked his fellow in whispers, the meaning of this sudden peace, while Raymond, from in height, endeavoured classes to discover and observe the stratagem of the enemy. No form could be discerned

Starting point is 07:44:15 on the terraces of the houses. In the higher parts of the town, no moving shadow dispoke the presence of any living being. The very trees waved not, and mocked the stability of architecture, with like immovability. The tramp of horses, distinctly heard in the silence, was at length discerned. It was a troop sent by Carraza, the Admiral. They bore dispatches to the Lord general. The contents of these papers were important. The night before, the watch on board, one of the smaller vessels, anchored near the Saraglio wall, was roused by a slight splashing of muffled oars. The alarm was given. Twelve small boats, each containing three genisares, were descried, endeavoring to make their way through the fleet to the opposite shore

Starting point is 07:45:00 of Skutari. When they found themselves discovered, they discharged their muskets, and some came to the front to cover the others whose crews, exerting all their strength, endeavored escape with their light barks from among the dark halls that environed them. They were in the end, all sunk, and, with the exception of two or three prisoners, the crews drowned. Little could be got from the survivors, but their cautious answers caused it to be surmised that several expeditions had preceded this last, and that several Turks of rank and importance had been conveyed to Asia. the men disdainfully repelled the idea of having deserted the defence of their city, and one, the youngest among them, in answer to the taunt of a sailor, exclaimed,

Starting point is 07:45:44 Take it, Christian dogs. Take the palaces, the gardens, the mosques, the abode of our fathers, take plague with them. Pestulence is the enemy we fly. If she be your friend, hug her to your bosoms. The curse of Allah is on Stamble. Share ye her fate. Such was the account sent by Carraza to Raymond, but a tale full of monstrous exaggerations, though founded on this, was spread by the accompanying troop among our soldiers. A murmur arose. The city was the prey of pestilence, already had a mighty

Starting point is 07:46:15 power subjugated the inhabitants. Death had become lord of Constantinople. I have heard a picture described wherein all the inhabitants of earth were drawn out in fear to stand the encounter of death. The feeble and decrepit fled. The warriors retreated, though they threatened even in flight. and lions and various monsters of the desert roared against him, while the grim, unreality hovered shaking his spectral dart, a solitary but invisible assailant. Even so was it with the army of Greece. I am convinced that had the myriad troops of Asia come from over the Propontas and stood defenders of the golden city, each and every Greek would have marched against the overwhelming numbers, and have devoted himself with patriotic fury for his country. But here, no hedge of bayonets

Starting point is 07:47:03 opposed itself, no death-dealing artillery, no formidable array of brave soldiers, the unguarded walls afforded easy entrance. The vacant palaces, luxurious dwellings, but above the dome of St. Sophia, the superstitious saw pestilence and shrunk in trepidation from her influence. Raymond was actuated by far other feelings. He described the hill with a face, beaming with triumph, and pointing with his sword to the gates, commanded his troops too. Down with those barricades, the only obstacles now to completest victory. The soldiers answered his cheerful words with aghast and awestruck looks. Instinctively they drew back, and Raymond rode in front of the lines.

Starting point is 07:47:44 By my sword, I swear, he cried, that no ambush or stratagem endangers you. The enemy is already vanquished. The pleasant places, the noble dwellings, and spoil of the city are already yours. Force the gate. Enter and possess the seats of your ancestors. your own inheritance. And universal shudder and fearful whispering passed through the lines. Not a soldier moved.

Starting point is 07:48:09 Cowards exclaimed their general exasperated. Give me an hatchet. I alone will enter. I will plant your standard, and when you see it, wave from yon highest minaret. You may gain courage and rally around it. One of the officers now came forward. General, he said, we neither fear the courage nor arms,

Starting point is 07:48:26 the open attack nor secret ambush of the Muslims. We are ready to expose our breasts, exposed ten thousand times before, to the balls and cimitars of the infidels, and to fall gloriously for Greece, but we will not die in heaps like dogs poisoned in summertime by the pestilental air of that city. We dare not go against the plague. A multitude of men are feeble and inert, without a voice, a leader. Give them that, and they regain the strength, belonging to their numbers. shouts from a thousand voices, now rent the air. The cry of applause became universal. Raymond saw the danger.

Starting point is 07:49:04 He was willing to save his troops from the crime of disobedience, for he knew that contention once begun between the commander and his army, each act and word added to the weakness of the former, and bestowed power on the latter. He gave orders for the retreat to be sounded, and the regiment repaired in good order to the camp. I hastened to carry the intelligence of these strange proceedings, to Perdida, and we were soon joined by Raymond. He looked gloomy and perturbed. My sister was

Starting point is 07:49:33 struck by my narrative. How beyond the imagination of man, she exclaimed, are the decrees of heaven wondrous and inexplicable? Foolish girl, cried Raymond angrily. Are you, like my valiant soldiers, panic-struck? What is there inexplicable? Pray tell me, in so very natural an occurrence. Does not the plague rage each year in Istanbul? What wonder that this year, when, as we are told, its virulence is unexampled in Asia, that it should have occasioned double havoc in that city. What wonder then, in time of siege, want, extreme heat and drought, that it should make unaccustomed ravages, less wonder far from it, that the garrison, despairing of being able to hold out longer, should take advantage of the negligence of our fleet to escape at once from siege and

Starting point is 07:50:22 capture. It is not pestilence by the god that lives. It is not either play, or impending danger that makes us like birds and harvest time terrified by a scarecrow. Abstain from the ready prey, it is base superstition, and thus the aim of the valiant is made the shuttlecock of fools, the worthy ambition of the high-souled, the plaything of these tamed hairs, but yet Stambol shall be ours, by my past labors, by torture and imprisonment suffered for them, by my victories, by my sword, I swear by my hopes of fame, by my former desserts, now awaiting their reward, I deeply vow, with these hands to plant the cross on yonder mosque.

Starting point is 07:51:04 Dearest Raymond, interrupted Perdita in a supplicating accent. He had been walking to and fro in the marble halls of the Saraglio. His very lips were pale with rage. While crivering, they shaped his angry words. His eyes shot fire. His gestures seemed restraint by their very vehemence. Perdita, he continued impatiently, I know what you say. I know what you say. I know. know that you love me, that you were good and gentle. But this is no woman's work, nor can a female hard guess at the hurricane which tears me. He seemed half afraid of his own violence, and suddenly quitted the hall. A look from Perdita shewed me her distress, and I followed him. He was pacing with garden. His passions were in a state of inconceivable turbulence. Am I forever, he cried,

Starting point is 07:51:51 to be the sport of fortune? Must man, the heaven climber, be forever the victim of the crawling reptiles of his species, were I as you, Lionel, looking forward to many years of life, to a succession of love enlightened days, to refined enjoyments and fresh springing hopes, I might yield, and breaking my general staff, seek repose in the glades of Windsor, but I am about to die. Nay, interrupt me not, soon I shall die, from the many-peopled earth, from the sympathies of man, from the loved resorts of my youth, from the kindness of my friends, from the affection of my only beloved Perdita. I am about to be removed.

Starting point is 07:52:32 Such is the will of fate. Such the decree of the high ruler from whom there is no appeal. To whom I submit, but to lose all. To lose with life and love. Glory also, it shall not be. I, and in a few brief years, all you, this panic-struck army, and all the population of Fair Greece, will no longer be. But other generations will arise, and ever and forever, will continue.

Starting point is 07:52:56 to be made happier by our present acts, to be glorified by our valor. The prayer of my youth was to be one among those who render the pages of Earth's history splendid, who exalt the race of man, and make this little globe a dwelling of the mighty. Alas for Raymond. The prayer of his youth is wasted. The hopes of his manhood are null. From my dungeon in yonder city I cried. Soon I will be thy lord.

Starting point is 07:53:22 When Evadne pronounced my death, I thought that the title, of victor of Constantinople would be written on my tomb, and I subdued all mortal fear. I stand before its vanquished walls, and dare not call myself a conqueror, so shall it not be. Did not Alexander leap from the walls of the city of the Oxidrese, to shew his coward troops the way to victory, encountering alone the sword of its defenders? Even so will I brave the plague, and though no man follow, I will plant the Grecian standard in the heights of St. Sophia. Reason came availing to such high-wrought feelings. In vain I shooed him that, when the winter came, the cold would dissipate the pestilental air and restore courage to the Greeks. Talk not of other

Starting point is 07:54:07 season than this, he cried. I have lived my last winter, and the date of this year, 2092, will be carved upon my tomb. Already do I see it, he continued, looking up, mournfully, the born and precipitate edge of my existence, over which I plunge into the gloomy mystery of the life to come. I am prepared so that I leave behind a trail of light, so radiant that my worst enemies cannot cloud it. I owe this to Greece, to you, to my surviving Perdita, and to myself, the victim of ambition. We were interrupted by an attendant who announced that the staff of Raymond was assembled in the council chamber. He requested me, in the meantime, to ride through the camp, and to observe and report to him the dispositions of the soldiers. He then left me. I had

Starting point is 07:54:56 been excited to the utmost by the proceedings of the day and now more than ever by the passionate language of raymond alas for human reason he accused the greeks of superstition what name did he give to the faith he lent to the predictions of evadne i passed from the palace of sweet waters to the plain on which the encampment lay and found its inhabitants in commotion the arrival of several with fresh stories of marvels from the fleet the exaggerations bestowed on what was already known. Tales of old prophecies, of fearful histories of whole regions, which had been laid waste during the present year by pestilence, alarmed and occupied the troops. Discipline was lost. The army disbanded itself. Each individual, before a part of a great hole, moving only in unison with others, now became resolved into the unit nature had made him, and thought of himself only. They stole off at first by ones and twos, then in larger companies, until, unimonystoned. Until, impeded by the officers, whole battalions sought the road that led to Macedonia.

Starting point is 07:56:02 About midnight, I returned to the palace and sought Raymond. He was alone and apparently composed. Such composure, at least, was his as is inspired by the resolve to adhere to a certain line of conduct. He heard my account of the self-dissolution of the army with calmness, and then said, You know, Verney, my fixed determination not to quit this place, until in the light of day, Istanbul is confessedly ours. If the men I have about me shrink from following me, others more courageous are to be found. Go you before break of day. Bear these dispatches to Karaza. Add to them your own entreaties that he send me his Marines and naval force.

Starting point is 07:56:45 If I can get but one regiment to second me, the rest would follow, of course. Let him send me this regiment. I shall expect your return by tomorrow noon. We thought this was but a poor expedient, but I assured him of my obedience and zeal. I quitted him to take a few hours rest. With the breaking of morning, I was accruited for my ride. I lingered a while, desirous of taking leave of Perdita, and from my window observed the approach of the sun. The golden splendor arose, and weary nature awoke to suffer, yet another day of heat and thirsty decay. flowers lifted up their due laden cups to meet the dawn. The dry grass had withered on the plains. The burning fields of air were vacant of birds. The Succale alone, children of the sun,

Starting point is 07:57:32 began their shrill and deafening song among the cypresses and olives. I saw Raymond's cold black charger brought to the palace gate. A small company of officers arrived soon after. Care and fear was painted on each cheek and in each eye, unrefreshed by sleep. I feel found Raymond and Perdita together. He was watching the rising sun. Well, with one arm, he encircled his beloved's waist. She looked on him, the son of her life, with earnest gaze of mingled anxiety and tenderness. Raymond started angrily when he saw me. Here still, he cried. Is this your promised zeal? Pardon me, I said. But even as you speak, I am gone. Nay, pardon me, he replied. I have no right to command or approach. But my life hangs on your departure.

Starting point is 07:58:20 and speedy returned farewell his voice had recovered its bland tone but a dark cloud still hung on his features i would have delayed i wished to recommend watchfulness to perdita but his presence restrained me i had no pretense for my hesitation and on his repeating his farewell i clasped his outstretched hand it was cold and clammy take care of yourself my dear lord i said nay said prodida that task shall be mine return speedily lionel with an air of absence he was playing with her auburn locks while she leaned on him twice i turned back again on this matchless pair at last with slow and heavy steps i had paced out of the hall and sprung upon my horse at that moment clara flew toward me clasping my knee she cried make haste back uncle dear uncle i have such fearful dreams i dare not tell my mother do not be long away i assured her of my impatience to return and then with a small escort rode along the plain toward the tower of Marmora. I fulfilled my commission. I saw Carraza. He was somewhat surprised. He would see, he said, what could be done, but it required time, and Raymond had ordered me to return by noon. It was impossible to affect anything in so short a time. I must stay till the next day or come back, after having reported the present state of things to the general. My choice was easily made, a restlessness, a fear of what was about to betide, a doubt as to Raymond's purposes, to return without delay to his quarters. Quitting the seven towers, I rode eastward toward the sweet waters.

Starting point is 07:59:56 I took circuitous path, principally for the sake of going to the top of the mount before mentioned, which commanded a view of the city. I had my glass with me. The city basked under the noonday sun, and the venerable walls formed its picturesque boundary. Immediately before me was the top of Kapu, the gate near which Mohamet had made the breach by which he entered the city. Trees, gigantic, gigantic and aged grew near. Before the gate, I discerned a crowd of moving human figures. With intense curiosity, I lifted my glass to my eye. I saw Lord Raymond on his charger. A small company of officers had gathered about him, and behind was a promiscuous course of soldiers and subalterns. Their discipline lost, their arms thrown aside. No music sounded, no banners stream. The only

Starting point is 08:00:45 flag among them was the one Raymond carried. He pointed with it to the gate of the city. The circle round him fell back. With angry gestures, he leapt from his horse, and seizing a hatchet that hung from his saddle-bow, went with the apparent intention of battering down the opposing gate. A few men came to aid him. Their numbers increased. Under their united blows, the obstacle was vanquished. Gate portcullis and fence were demolished, and the wide sunlit way, leading to the heart of the city, now lay open before them. The men shrank back. They seemed afraid of what they had already done, and stood as if they expected some mighty phantom to stalk an offended majesty from the opening. Raymond sprung lightly to his horse, grasped the standard, and with words

Starting point is 08:01:28 which I could not hear, but his gestures, being their fit accompaniment, were marked by passionate energy. He seemed to adjure their assistance and companionship. Even as he spoke, the crowd receded from him. Indignation now transported him. His words, I guessed, were fraught with disdain. Then, turning from his coward followers, he addressed himself to enter the city alone. His very horse seemed to back from the fatal entrance. His dog, his faithful dog, lay moaning and supplicating in his path. In a moment more, he had plunged the ral's into the side of the stunning animal, who bounded forward, and he, the gateway passed, was galloping up the broad and desert street. Until this moment, my soul had been in my eyes only. I had gazed with wonder, mixed with fear

Starting point is 08:02:16 and enthusiasm. The latter feeling now predominated. I forgot the distance between us. I will go with these, Raymond, I cried. But my eye removed from the glass, I could scarce discern the pygmy forms of the crowd, which about a mile from me surrounded

Starting point is 08:02:31 the gate. The form of Raymond was lost. Stung with impatience, I urged my horse with force of spur and loosened rains down the acclivity, that before danger could arrive. I might be at the side of noble, godlike friend. A number of buildings and trees intervened when I had reached the plane,

Starting point is 08:02:52 hiding the city from my view. But at that moment, a crash was heard. Thunder-like, it reverberated through the sky while the air was darkened. A moment more, and the old walls again met my sight, while over them hovered a murky cloud. Fragments of buildings rolled above, half seen in the smoke, while flames burst out beneath, and continued explosions filled the air with terrific thunder. flying from the mass of falling ruin, which leapt over the high walls and shook the ivy towers, a crowd of soldiers made for the road by which I came. I was surrounded, hemmed in by them, unable to get forward. My impatience rose to its utmost.

Starting point is 08:03:32 I stretched out my hands to the men. I conjured them to turn back and save their general, the conqueror of Stambul, the liberator of Greece. Tears, I tears, in warm flow, gushed from my eyes. I would not believe in his destruction, yet every mass that darkened the air seemed to bear with it a portion of the martyred Raymond. Horrible sights were shaped to me, and the turbid cloud that hovered over the city, and my own relief was derived from the struggles I made to approach the gate. Yet, when I affected my purpose, all I could discern with the precincts of the mass of walls was a city of fire. The open way, through which Raymond had ridden, was enveloped in small,

Starting point is 08:04:16 and flame. After an interval, the explosions ceased, but the flames still shot up from various quarters. The dome of St. Sophia had disappeared. Strange to say, the result perhaps of the concussion of air occasioned by the blowing-up city, huge. White thunder clouds lifted themselves up from the southern horizon and gathered overhead. They were the first blots on the blue expanse that I had seen for months, and amid this havoc and despair, they inspired pleasure. The vault above became obscured. Lightning flashed from the heavy masses, followed instantaneously by crashing thunder. Then the big rain fell.

Starting point is 08:04:52 The flames of the city bent beneath it, and the smoke and dust arising from the ruins was dissipated. I no sooner perceived an abatement of the flames, then, hurried on by an irresistible impulse, I endeavored to penetrate the town. I could only do this on foot, as the mass of ruin was impracticable for a horse. I had never entered the city before, and its ways were on. known to me. The streets were blocked up, the ruins smoking. I climbed up one heat only to view others and suspicion, and nothing told me where the center of the town might be, or toward what point Raymond might have directed his course. The rain ceased, the clouds, sunk behind the horizon.

Starting point is 08:05:30 It was now evening, and the sun descended swiftly, the western sky. I scrambled on until I came to a street whose wooden houses, half burnt, had been cooled by the rain, and were fortunately uninjured by the gunpowder. Up this, I hurried, until now I had not seen a vestige of man. Yet, none of the defaced human forms which I distinguished could be Raymond. So I turned my eyes away, while my heart sickened within me. I came to an open space, a mountain of ruin, in the midst. I announced that some large mosque had occupied the space, and here, scattered about. I saw various articles of luxury and wealth, singed, destroyed, but chewing what they had been, in their ruin. Jewels, strings of pearls and brightered robes, rich furs, glittering tapestries,

Starting point is 08:06:18 and oriental ornaments, seemed to have been collected here in a pile destined for destruction, but the rain had stopped the havoc midway. Hours passed, while in this scene of ruin, I sought for Raymond, insurmountable heaps sometimes opposed themselves. The still-burning fires scorched me, the sunset. The atmosphere grew dim and the evening star no longer shone companionless. The glare of flames attested the progress of destruction. Well, during mingled light and obscurity, the piles around me took gigantic proportions and weird shapes. For a moment, I could yield to the creative power of the imagination, and for a moment was soothed by the sublime fictions it presented to me. The beatings of my human heart drew me back to blank reality. Where, in this wilderness of death,

Starting point is 08:07:04 art thou, O Raymond, Ornament of England, deliverer of Greece, hero of unwritten story. Where is and this burning chaos are thy dear relics strewed. I called aloud for him, through the darkness of night, over the scorching ruins of fallen Constantinople. His name was heard, no voice replied, echo even was mute. I was overcome by weariness. The solitude depressed my spirits. The sultry air impregnated with dust, the heat and smoke of burning palaces, palsied my limbs. Hunger suddenly came acutely upon me, the excitement which had hitherto sustained me was lost as a building whose props are loosened and whose foundations rock totters and falls so when enthusiasm and hope deserted me did strength did my strength fail i sat on the sole remaining step of an edifice which even in its downfall was huge and magnificent a few broken walls not dislodged by gunpowder stood in fantastic groups and a flame glimmered at intervals on the summit of the pile for a time hunger and sleep contended till the constellations reeled before my eyes and then were lost i strove to rise but my heavy lids closed

Starting point is 08:08:19 my limbs over-wearied claimed repose i rested my head on the stone i yielded to the grateful sensation but her forgetfulness and in that scene of desolation on that night of despair i slept end of volume two Chapter 2. Volume 2, Chapter 3 of The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Christine Blashford,

Starting point is 08:08:48 www. www.sidepodcast.com The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 2, Chapter 3. The stars still shone brightly when I awoke, and tourists high in the southern heaven showed that it was midnight. I awoke from disturbed dreams. dreams. Me thought I had been invited to Timon's last feast. I came with keen appetite, the covers were removed, the hot water sent up its unsatisfying steams, while I fled before the anger of the host, who assumed the form of Raymond, while to my diseased fancy the vessels hurled by him after me, was surcharged with fetid vapour, and my friend's shape, altered by a thousand distortions, expanded into a gigantic phantom, bearing on its brow the sign of pestilence. the growing shadow rose and rose filling and then seeming to endeavour to burst beyond the adamantine vault that bent over sustaining and enclosing the world the nightmare became torture with a strong effort i threw off sleep and recalled reason to her wanted functions

Starting point is 08:09:44 my first thought was perdita to her i must return her i must support drawing such food from despair as might best sustain her wounded heart recalling her from the wild excesses of grief by the austere laws of duty and the soft tenderness of regret the position of the stars was my only guide i turned from the awful ruin of the golden city and after great exertions succeeded in extricating myself from its enclosure i met a company of soldiers outside the walls i borrowed a horse from one of them and hastened to my sister the appearance of the plain was changed during this short interval the encampment was broken up the relics of the disbanded army met in small companies here and there each face was clouded every gesture spoke astonishment and dismay with a heavy heart i entered the palace and stood fearful to advance to speak to look in the midst of the hall was perdita she sat on the marble pavement her head fallen on her bosom her hair dishevelled her fingers twined busily one within the other she was pale as marble and every feature was contracted by agony she perceived me and looked up inquiringly her half-glance of hope was misery the words died before i could articulate them i felt a ghastly smile wrinkle my lips she understood my gesture again her head fell again her head fell again her head her fingers worked restlessly. At last I recovered speech, but my voice terrified her. The hapless girl had understood my look, and for worlds she would not that the tale of her heavy misery should have been shaped out and confirmed by hard, irrevocable words. Nay, she seemed to wish to distract my

Starting point is 08:11:09 thoughts from the subject. She rose from the floor. Hush, she said, whisperingly. After much weeping Clara sleeps we must not disturb her. She seated herself then on the same ottoman where I had left her in the morning resting on the beating heart of her Raymond. I dared not approach her. but sat at a distant corner watching her starting and nervous gestures at length in an abrupt manner she asked where is he oh fear not she continued fear not that i should entertain hope yet tell me have you found him to have him once more in my arms to see him however changed is all i desire though constantinople be heaped above him as a tomb yet i must find him then cover us with the city's weight with a mountain piled above i care not so that one grave hold raymond and his perdita then weeping she clung to me take me to him she cried unkind lionel why do you keep me here of myself i cannot find him but you know where he lies lead me thither at first these agonizing plains filled me with intolerable compassion but soon i endeavoured to extract patience for her from the ideas she suggested i related my adventures of the night my endeavours to find find our lost one, and my disappointment. Turning her thoughts this way, I gave them an object which rescued them from insanity.

Starting point is 08:12:17 With apparent calmness, she discussed with me the probable spot where he might be found, and planned the means we should use for that purpose. Then hearing of my fatigue and abstinence, she herself brought me food. I seized the favourable moment, and endeavoured to awaken in her something beyond the killing torpor of grief. As I spoke, my subject carried me away, deep admiration, grief, the offspring of truest affection, The overflowing of a heart bursting with sympathy for all that had been great and sublime in the career of my friend inspired me as I poured forth the praises of Raymond. Alas for us, I cried, who have lost this latest honour of the world, beloved Raymond.

Starting point is 08:12:51 He has gone to the nations of the dead. He has become one of those who render the dark abode of the obscure grave, illustrious by dwelling there. He has journeyed on the road that leads to it, and joined the mighty of soul who went before him. When the world was in its infancy, death must have been terrible, and man left his friends and kindred to dwell, a solitary stranger in an unknown country. But now he who dies find many companions gone before to prepare for his reception. The great of past ages people in it, the exalted hero of our own days is counted among its inhabitants, while life becomes doubly the desert and the solitude. What a noble creature was Raymond, the first among the men of our time, by the grandeur of

Starting point is 08:13:27 his conceptions, the graceful daring of his actions, by his wit and beauty he won and ruled the minds of all. Of one only fault he might have been accused, but his death has cancelled that, i have heard him called inconstant of purpose when he deserted for the sake of love the hope of sovereignty and when he abdicated the protectorship of england men blamed his infirmity of purpose now his death has crowned his life and to the end of time it will be remembered that he devoted himself a willing victim to the glory of greece such was his choice he expected to die he foresaw that he should leave this cheerful earth the lightsome sky and thy love perdita yet he neither hesitated or turned back going right onward to his mark of fame while the earth lasts his actions will be recorded with praise grecian maidens will in devotions drew flowers on his tomb and make the air around it resonant with patriotic hymns in which his name will find high record i saw the features of perdita soften the sternness of grief yielded to tenderness i continued thus to honour him is the sacred duty of his survivors, to make his name even as an holy spot of ground, enclosing it from all hostile attacks by our praise, shedding on it the blossoms of love and regret, guarding it from decay, and bequeathing it untainted to posterity. Such is the duty of his friends. A dearer one

Starting point is 08:14:39 belongs to you, Padita, mother of his child? Do you remember in her infancy with what transport you beheld Clara, recognising in her the united being of yourself and Raymond, joying to view in this living temple a manifestation of your eternal loves? Even such is she still? You say that you have lost Raymond, oh no, yet he lives with you and in you there. From him she sprung flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, and not, as her heretofore, are you content to trace in her downy cheek and delicate limbs, and affinity to Raymond, but in her enthusiastic affections, in the sweet qualities of her mind you may still find him living, the good, the great, the beloved. Be it your care to foster this similarity, be it your care to render her worthy

Starting point is 08:15:17 of him, so that when she glory in her origin she take not shame for what she is. I could perceive that when I recalled my sister's thoughts to her duties in life, she did not listen with the same patience as before. She appeared to suspect a plan of consolation on my part, from which she, cherishing her newborn grief, revolted. You talk of the future, she said, while the present is all to me, let me find the earthly dwelling of my beloved, let us rescue that from common dust, so that in times to come men may point to the sacred tomb, and name it his, then to other thoughts and a new course of life, or what else fate in her cruel tyranny may have marked out for me. After a short repose, I prepared to leave her that I might endeavour to accomplish her wish. In the meantime we were joined

Starting point is 08:15:56 by Clara, whose pallid cheek and scared looks showed the deep impression grief had made on her young mind. She seemed to be full of something, to which she could not give words, but, seizing an opportunity afforded by Perdita's absence, she preferred to me an earnest prayer, that I would take her within view of the gate at which her father had entered Constantinople. She promised to commit no extravagance, to be docile, and immediately to return. I could not refuse, for Clara was not an ordinary child. Her sensibility and intelligence seemed already to have endowed her with the rights of womanhood with her therefore before me on my horse attended only by the servant who was to reconduct her we rode to the top capao we found a party of soldiers gathered round it they were listening they are human cries said one more like the howling of a dog replied another and again they bent to catch the sound of regular distant moans which issued from the precincts of the ruined city that clara i said is the gate that the street which yester morn your father rode up whatever clara's intentioned had been in asking to be brought hither it was bulked by the presence of the

Starting point is 08:16:52 of the soldiers. With earnest gaze she looked on the labyrinth of smoking-piles which had been a city, and then expressed her readiness to return home. At this moment a melancholy howl struck on our ears. It was repeated. "'Hark!' cried Clara. "'He is there! That is Floreo, my father's dog!' It seemed to me impossible that she could recognize the sound, but she persisted in her assertion till she gained credit with the crowd about. At least it would be a benevolent action to rescue the sufferer, whether human or brute, from the desolation of the town, so, sending Clara back to her home, I again entered Constantinople. Encouraged by the impunity attendant on my former visit, several soldiers who had made a part of Raymond's bodyguard, who had loved him, and

Starting point is 08:17:30 sincerely mourned his loss, accompanied me. It is impossible to conjecture the strange enchantment of events which restored the lifeless form of my friend to our hands. In that part of the town where the fire had most raged the night before, and which now lay quenched black and cold, the dying dog of Raymond crouched beside the mutilated form of its lord. At such a time, sorrow has no voice, affliction, tamed by it his very vehemence, is mute. The poor animal recognized me, licked my hand, crept close to its lord, and died. He had been evidently thrown from his horse by some falling ruin, which had crushed his head and defaced his whole person. I bent over the body and took in my hand the edge of his cloak, less altered in appearance than the human

Starting point is 08:18:08 frame it clothed. I pressed it to my lips, while the rough soldiers gathered round, mourning over this worthiest prey of death, as if regret an endless lamentation could re-alumin the extinguished spark, or call to its shattered prison-house of flesh, the liberated spirit. Yesterday those limbs were worth an universe. They then enshrined a transcendent power, whose intense words and actions were worthy to be recorded in letters of gold. Now the superstition of affection alone could give value to the shattered mechanism, which, incapable and clod-like, no more resembled Raymond than the fallen rain is like the

Starting point is 08:18:40 former mansion of cloud in which it climbed the higher sky. and gilded by the sun attracted all eyes and satiated the scents by its excess of beauty such as he had now become such as was his terene vesture defaced and spoiled we wrapped it in our cloaks and lifting the burthen in our own arms bore it from this city of the dead the question arose as to where we should deposit him in our road to the palace we passed through the greek cemetery here on a tablet of black marble i caused him to be laid the cypresses waved high above their death-like gloom accorded with his state of nothingness we cut branches of the funereal trees and place them over him, and on these again his sword. I left a guard to protect this treasure of dust, and ordered perpetual torches to be burned around. When I returned to Perdita, I found that she had already been informed of the success of my undertaking. He, her beloved, the soul and eternal object of her passionate tenderness, was restored to her. Such was the maniac language of her enthusiasm. What though these limbs moved not, and these lips could no more frame modulated accents of

Starting point is 08:19:37 wisdom and love, what though like a weed flung from the fruitless sea, he lay the prey of corruption, still that was the form she had caressed those the lips that meeting hers had drank the spirit of love from the comingling breath that was the earthly mechanism of dissoluble clay she had called her own true she looked forward to another life true the burning spirit of love seemed her unextinguishable throughout eternity yet at this time with human fondness she clung to all that her human senses permitted her to see and feel to be a part of raiment pale as marble clear and beaming as that she heard my tale and inquired concerning the spot where he had been deposited her features had lost a distortion of grief, her eyes were brightened, her very person seemed dilated. While the excessive whiteness and even transparency of her skin and something hollow in her voice bore witness that not tranquillity, but excess of excitement, occasioned the treacherous calm that settled on her countenance, I asked her where he should be buried, she replied, at Athens, even at the Athens which he loved, without the town, on the clavity of Hemetus,

Starting point is 08:20:34 there is a rocky recess which he pointed out to me as the spot where he would wish to repose. My own desire certainly was that he should not be removed from the spot where he now lay, but her wish was of course to be complied with, and I entreated her to prepare without delay for our departure. Behold now the melancholy train cross the flats of Thrace, and wind through the defiles, and over the mountains of Macedonia, coast the clear waves of the Peneas, cross the Larisian plain, past the straits of Thermopylae, and ascending in succession, Oeta and Parnasus, descend to the fertile plain of Athens.

Starting point is 08:21:05 Women bear with resignation these long-drawn ills, but to a man's impatient spirit the slow emotion of our cavalcade, the melancholy repose we took at noon, the perpetual presence of the pall, gorgeous, though it was, that wrapped the rifled casket which had contained Raymond, the monotonous recurrence of day and night, and varied by hope or change, all the circumstances of our march were intolerable. Padita, shut up in herself, spoke little. Her carriage was closed, and when we rested she sat leaning her pale cheek on her white, cold hand, with eyes fixed on the ground, indulging thoughts which refused communication or sympathy. We descended from Panassus, emerging from its many folds and passed through Le Vidaea on our road to Attica.

Starting point is 08:21:43 Perdita would not enter Athens, but reposing it Marathon on the night of our arrival, conducted me on the following day, to the spot selected by her as the treasure-house of Raymond's deer remains. It was in a recess near the head of the ravine to the south of Hematus. The chasm deep, black, and hoary swept from the summit to the base. In the fissures of the rock-murtle underwood grew the wild-time, the food of many nations of bees, enormous crags protruded into the cleft, some beetling over, others rising perpendicularly from it. At the foot of this sublime chasm, a fertile laughing valley reached from sea to sea, and beyond was spread the blue Aegean,

Starting point is 08:22:17 sprinkled with islands, the light waves glancing beneath the sun. Close to the spot on which we stood was a solitary rock, high and conical, which divided on every side from the mountain, seemed a nature-hewn pyramid, with little labour this block was reduced to a perfect shape, the narrow cell was scooped out beneath in which Raymond was placed, and a short inscription, carved in the living stone, recorded the name of its tenant, the cause and error of his death. Everything was accomplished with speed under my directions. I agreed to leave the finishing and guardianship of the tomb to the head of the religious establishment at Athens, and by the end of October prepared for my return to England.

Starting point is 08:22:51 I mentioned this to Padita. It was painful to appear to drag her from the last scene that spoke of her lost one, but to linger here was vain, and my very soul was sick with its yearning to rejoin my Idris and her babes. In reply, my sister requested me to accompany her the following evening to the to the to tomb of Raymond. Some days had passed since I had visited the spot. The path to it had been enlarged, and steps hewn in the rock led us less circuitously than before, to the spot itself. The platform on which the pyramid stood was enlarged, and looking towards the south, in a recess overshadowed by the straggling branches of a wild fig tree. I saw foundations dug, and props and rafters

Starting point is 08:23:24 fixed, evidently the commencement of a cottage. Standing on its unfinished threshold, the tomb was at our right hand, the whole ravine and plain and azure sea immediately before us, the dark rocks received a glow from the descending sun which glanced along the cultivated valley and died in purple and orange the placid waves we sat on a rocky elevation and i gazed with rapture on the beauteous panorama of living in changeful colours which varied and enhanced the graces of earth and ocean did i not do right said pedita in having my loved one conveyed hither hereafter this will be the sinister of greece in such a spot death loses half its terrors and even the inanimate dust appears to partake of the spirit of beauty which hallows this region lionel he sleeps there that is the grave of raymond he whom in my youth i first loved whom my heart accompanied in days of separation and anger to whom i am now joined for ever never mark me never will i leave this spot methinks his spirit remains here as well as that dust which uncommunicable though it be is more precious in its nothingness than aught else widowed earth clasps to her sorrowing bosom the myrtle bushes the thyme which peep from the fissures of the rock all the produce of the place bear affinity to him the light that invests the hills participates in his essence and sky and mountains sea and valley are imbued by the presence of his spirit i will live and die here go you to england lionel return to sweet idris and dearest adrian return and let my orphan girl be as a child of your own in your house look on me as dead and truly if death be a mere change of state i am dead this is another world from that which late i inhabited from that which is now your home here i hold communion only with the has-been and to come

Starting point is 08:24:58 go you to england and leave me where alone i can consent to drag out the miserable days which i must still live a shower of tears terminated her sad harangue i had expected some extravagant proposition and remained silent a while collecting my thoughts that i might the better combat her fanciful scheme you cherish dreary thoughts my dear pedita i said nor do i wonder that for a time your better reason should be influenced by passionate grief and a disturbed imagination even i am in love with this last home of raymond's nevertheless we must quit it i expected this cried padita i suppose that you would treat me as a mad foolish girl but do not deceive yourself this cottage is built by my order and here i shall remain until the hour arrives when i may share his happier dwelling my dearest girl and what is there so strange in my design i might have deceived you i might have talked of remaining here only a few months in your anxiety to reach windsor you would have left me and without reproach or contention i might have pursued my plan but i disdained the artifice or rather in my wretchedness it was my only consolation to pour out my heart to you my brother my only friend you will not dispute with me you know how wilful your poor misery-stricken sister is take my girl with you wean her from sights and thoughts of sorrow let infantine hilarity revisit her heart and animate her eyes, so could it never be where she near me. It is far better for all of you that you should never see me again. For myself I will not voluntarily seek death, that is, I will not, while I can command myself, and I can hear. But drag me from this country, and my power of self-control

Starting point is 08:26:23 vanishes. Nor can I answer for the violence my agony of grief may lead me to commit. You clothe your meaning, Padita, I replied, in powerful words, yet that meaning is selfish and unworthy of you. You have often agreed with me that there is but one solution to the intricate riddle of life, to improve ourselves and contribute to the happiness of others, and now, in the very prime of life, you desert your principles, and shut yourself up in useless solitude. Will you think of Raymond less at Windsor, the scene of your early happiness? Will you commune less with his departed spirit while you watch over and cultivate the rare excellence of his child? You have been sadly visited, nor do I wonder that a feeling akin to insanity should drive you to bitter and

Starting point is 08:26:58 unreasonable imaginings. But a home of love awaits you in your native England. My tenderness and affection must soothe you, the Society of Raymond's friends will be of more solace than these dreary speculations. We will all make it our first care, our dearest task, to contribute to your happiness." Perdita shook her head. If it could be so, she replied, I were much in the wrong to disdain your offers, but it is not a matter of choice. I can live here only.

Starting point is 08:27:22 I am a part of this scene. Each and all its properties are a part of me. This is no sudden fancy. I live by it. The knowledge that I am here rises with me in the morning, and enables me to endure the light. It is mingled with my food which else were poison. It walks, it sleeps with me, forever it accompanies me. Here I may even cease to repine, and may add my tardy consent to the decree which has taken him from me. He would rather have died such a death which will be recorded

Starting point is 08:27:45 in history to endless time than have lived to old age unknown, unhonored. Nor can I desire better than having been the chosen and beloved of his heart, here in youth's prime, before added years can tarnish the best feelings of my nature, to watch his tomb and speedily rejoin him in his blessed repose. So much, my dearest Lionel, I have said, wishing to persuade you that I do right, if you are unconvinced I can add nothing further by way of argument, and I can only declare my fixed resolve, I stay here, force only can remove me, be it so, drag me away, I return, confine me, imprison me, still I escape and come here, or would my brother rather devote the heartbroken Padita to the straw and chains of a maniac, than suffer her to rest in peace beneath the shadow

Starting point is 08:28:24 of his society, in this my own selected and beloved recess? all this appeared to me i own methodized madness i imagine that it was my imperative duty to take her from scenes that thus forcibly reminded her of her loss nor did i doubt that in the tranquillity of our family circle at windsor she would recover some degree of composure and in the end of happiness my affection for clara also led me to oppose these fond dreams of cherished grief her sensibility had already been too much excited her infant heedlessness too soon exchanged for deep and anxious thought the strange and romantic scheme of her mother might confirm and perpetuate the painful or view of life, which had intruded itself thus early on her contemplation. On returning home, the captain of the steam-packet with whom I had agreed to sail, came to tell me that accidental circumstances hastened his departure, and that if I went with him I must come on board at five on the following morning. I hastily gave my consent to this arrangement,

Starting point is 08:29:15 and as hastily formed a plan through which Perdita should be forced to become my companion. I believe that most people in my situation would have acted in the same manner, yet this consideration does not, or rather did not in after-time, diminish the reproaches of my conscience. At the moment I felt convinced that I was acting for the best, and that all I did was right and even necessary. I sat with Padita and soothed her by my seeming assent to her wild scheme. She received my concurrence with pleasure, and a thousand times over thanked her deceiving, deceitful brother. As night came on, her spirits enlivened by my unexpected concession, regained an almost forgotten vivacity.

Starting point is 08:29:49 I pretended to be alarmed by the feverish glow in her cheek. I entreated her to take a composing draught. I poured out the medicine which she took docilely from me. I watched her as she drank it. Falshood and artifice are in themselves so hateful that, though I still thought I did right, a feeling of shame and guilt came painfully upon me. I left her, and soon heard that she slept soundly under the influence of the opiate I had administered.

Starting point is 08:30:10 She was carried thus unconscious on board, the anchor wade, and the wind being favourable, we stood far out to sea with all the canvas spread and the power of the engine to assist. We scurded swiftly and steadily through the chafed element. It was late in the day before Padita awoke, and the longer time elapsed before recovering from the torpor, by the laudanum she perceived her change of situation she started wildly from her couch and flew to the cabin window the blue and troubled sea sped past the vessel and was spread shoreless around the sky was covered by a rack which in its swift motion showed how speedily she was borne away the creaking of the masts the clang of the wheels the tramp above all persuaded her that she was already far from the shores of greece where are we she cried where are we going the attendant whom i had stationed to watch her replied to england and my brother is on deck madam unkind unkind exclaimed the poor victim as with a deep sigh she looked on the waste of waters then without further remark she threw herself on her couch and closing her eyes remained motionless so that but for the deep sighs that burst from her it would have seemed that she slept as soon as i heard that she had spoken i sent clara to her that the sight of the lovely innocent might inspire gentle and affectionate thoughts but neither the presence of her child nor a subsequent visit from me could rouse my sister she looked on clara with a countenance of woeful meaning but she did not speak

Starting point is 08:31:24 when i appeared she turned away and in reply to my inquiries only said you know not what you have done i trusted that this sullenness betokened merely the struggle between disappointment and natural affection and that in a few days she would be reconciled to her fate when night came on she begged that clara might sleep in a separate cabin her servant however remained with her about midnight she spoke to the latter saying that she had had a bad dream and bade her daughter and bring word whether she rested quietly the woman obeyed the breeze that had flagged since sunset now rose again i was on deck enjoying our swift progress the quiet was disturbed only by the rush of waters as they divided before the steady keel the murmur of the moveless and full sails the wind whistling in the shrouds and the regular motion of the engine the sea was gently agitated now showing a white crest and now resuming a uniform hue the clouds had disappeared and dark ether clipped the broad ocean in which the constellations vainly sought their accustomed mirror our rate could not have been less than eight knots suddenly i heard a splash in the sea the sailors on watch rushed to the side of the vessel with the cry some one gone overboard it is not from deck said the man at the helm something has been thrown from the aft cabin a call for the boat to be lowered was echoed from the deck i rushed into my sister's cabin it was empty with sails abaft the engine stopped the vessel remained unwillingly stationary until after an hour's search my poor pedita was brought on board but no care could reanimate her no medicine cause her dear eyes to open and the blood to flow again from her pulseless heart one clenched hand contained a slip of paper on which was written to athens to ensure her removal thither and prevent the irrecovering loss of her body in the wide sea she had had the precaution to fasten a long shawl around her waist and again to the staunchance of the cabin window she had drifted somewhat under the keel of the vessel and her being out of sight occasioned the delay in finding her and thus the ill-starred girl died a victim to my senseless rashness thus in early day she left us for the company of the dead and preferred to share the rocky grave of raymond before the animated scene this cheerful earth afforded and the society of loving friends thus in her twenty-ninth year she died having enjoyed some few years of the happen

Starting point is 08:33:26 of paradise and sustaining a reverse to which her impatient spirit and affectionate disposition were unable to submit as i marked the placid expression that had settled on her countenance in death i felt in spite of the pangs of remorse in spite of heartrending regret that it was better to die so than to drag on long miserable years of repining an inconsolable grief stress of weathered our vessel drove us up the adriatic gulf and our vessel being hardly fitted to weather a storm we took refuge in the port of ancona here i met george eau-pally the vice-admiral of the greek fleet a former friend and warm partisan of Raymond. I committed the remains of my lost Perdita to his care, for the purpose of having then transported to Himetas, and placed in a cell her Raymond already occupied beneath the pyramid. This was all accomplished even as I wished. She reposed beside her beloved, and the tomb above was inscribed with the united names of Raymond and Padita. I then came to a resolution of pursuing our journey to England over land. My own heart was wracked by regrets and remorse, the apprehension that Raymond had departed for ever, that his name blended eternally with the past, must be erased from ever. every anticipation of the future had come slowly upon me i had always admired his talents his noble aspirations his grand conceptions of the glory and majesty of his ambition his utter want of mean passions his fortitude and daring in greece i had learnt to love him his very waywardness and self-abandonment to the impulses of superstition attach me to him doubly it might be weakness but it was the antipodes of all that was grovelling and selfish to these pangs were added the loss of perdita lost through my own accursed self-will and conceit this dear one my sole relation whose progress i had marked from tender childhoods through the varied path of life and seen her throughout conspicuous for integrity devotion and true affection for all that constitutes the peculiar graces of the female character and beheld her at last the victim of too much loving too constant an attachment to the perishable and lost she in her pride of beauty and life had thrown aside the pleasant perception of the apparent world for the unreality of the grave and had left poor clara quite an orphan i concealed from this beloved child that her mother's death was voluntary and tried every means to awaken cheerfulness in her sorrow-stricken spirit one of my first acts for the recovery even of my own composure was to bid farewell to the sea its hateful splash renewed again and again to my sense the death of my sister its roar was a dirge in every dark hull that was tossed on its inconstant bosom i imaged a bier that would convey to death all who trusted to its treacherous smiles

Starting point is 08:35:45 farewell to the sea come my clara sit beside me in this aerial bark quickly and gently it cleaves the azure serene and with soft undulation glides upon the current of the air or if storm shake its fragile mechanism the green earth is below we can descend and take shelter on the stable continent here aloft the companions of the swift winged birds we skim through the unresisting element fleeting and fearlessly the light-boat heaves not nor is opposed by death-bearing waves the ether opens before the prow and the shadow of the globe that upholds it shelters us from the noonday sun beneath are the plains of italy or the vast undulations of the wave-like epennines fertility reposes in their many folds and woods crown the summits the free and happy peasant unshackled by the austrian bears the double harvest to the garner and the refined citizens rear without dread the long-belighted tree of knowledge in this garden of the world we were lifted above the alpine peaks and from their deep and brawling ravines entered the plain of fair france and after an airy journey of six days we landed at dieppe furled the feathered wings and closed the silken globe of our little pinnus a heavy rain made this mode of travelling now incommodious so we embarked in a steam packet and after a short passage landed at portsmouth a strange story was rife here a few days before a tempest-struck vessel had appeared off the town the hull was parched looking and cracked the sails rent and bent in a careless unseemone-like manner the shrouds tangled and broken. She drifted towards the harbour and was stranded on the sands at the entrance. In the morning the custom-house officers, together with the crowd of idlers, visited her. One only of the crew appeared to have arrived with her. He had got to shore and had walked a few paces towards the town, and then vanquished by Malady and approaching death, had fallen on the inhospitable beach.

Starting point is 08:37:22 He was found stiff, his hands clenched and pressed against his breast. His skin nearly black, his matted hair, and bristly beard were signs of a long protracted misery. It was whispered that he had died of the plague. no one ventured on board the vessel and strange sights were averted to be seen at night walking the deck and hanging on the masts and shrouds she soon went to pieces i was shown where she had been and saw her disjoined timbers tossed on the waves the body of the man who had landed had been buried deep in the sand and none could tell more than that the vessel was american built and that several months before the fortunatus had sailed from philadelphia of which no tidings were afterwards received end of chapter three volume two chapter four of the last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Madera. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Volume 2, Chapter 4. I returned to my family estate in the autumn of the year 2002.

Starting point is 08:38:43 My heart had long been with them, and I felt sick with the hope and delight of seeing them again. The district which contained them appeared the abode of every kindly spirit. Happiness, love, and peace walked the forest paths and tempered the atmosphere. After all the agitation and sorrow I had to be. endured in Greece, I sought Windsor, as the storm-driven bird does the nest in which it may fold its wings in tranquility. How unwise had the wanderers been, who had deserted its shelter and tangled themselves in the web of society, and entered on what men of the world called life, that labyrinth of evil,

Starting point is 08:39:28 that scheme of mutual torture? To live, according to this sense of the word, we must not only observe and learn we must also feel. We must not be mere spectators of action. We must act. We must not describe, but be subjects of description. Deep sorrow must have been the inmate of our bosoms. Fraud must have lain in wait for us. The artful must have deceived us. Sickening doubt and false hope must have checkered our days. Hilarity and joy. That lap the soul in ecstasy must at times have possessed us. Who that knows what life is would pine for this feverish species of existence? I have lived.

Starting point is 08:40:20 I have spent days and nights of festivity. I have joined in ambitious hopes and exalted in victory. Now shut the door on the world and build high the wall that is to semen. me from the troubled scene enacted within its precincts. Let us live for each other and for happiness. Let us seek peace in our dear home, near the inland murmur of streams and the gracious waving of trees, the beauteous vesture of earth and sublime pageantry of the skies.

Starting point is 08:40:55 Let us leave life that we may live. Idris was well content with this resolve of mine, Her native sprightliness needed no undue excitement, and her placid heart reposed contented on my love, the well-being of her children and the beauty of surrounding nature. Her pride and blameless ambition was to create smiles in all around her, and to shed repose on the fragile existence of her brother. In spite of her tender nursing, the health of Adrian perceptibly declined.

Starting point is 08:41:30 Walking, riding, the common occupations, of life overcame him. He felt no pain, but seemed to tremble forever on the verge of annihilation. Yet, as he had lived on for months nearly in the same state, he did not inspire us with any immediate fear. And though he talked of death as an event most familiar to his thoughts, he did not cease to exert himself to render others happy or to cultivate his own astonishing powers of mind. Winter passed away, and spring, led by the months awakened life in all nature. The forest was dressed in green. The young calves frisked on the new sprung grass. The wind-winged shadows of light clouds sped over the green cornfields. The hermit cuckoo repeated his monotonous

Starting point is 08:42:21 all hail to the season. The nightingale, bird of love and minion of the evening star, filled the woods was song, while Venus lingered in the warm sunset, and the young green of the trees lay in gentle relief along the clear horizon. Delight awoke in every heart. Delight in exultation, for there was peace through all the world. The temple of Universal Janus was shut, and man died not that year by the hand of man. Let this last but twelve months, said Adrian, and Earth will become a paradise. The energies of man were before directed to the destruction of his species. They now aim at its liberation and preservation.

Starting point is 08:43:09 Man cannot repose, and his restless aspirations will now bring forth good instead of evil. The favoured countries of the South would throw off the iron yoke of servitude. Poverty will quit us, and with that sickness! What may not the forces never before ununited of liberty and peace achieve in this dwelling of man? dreaming for ever dreaming windsor said riland the old adversary of raymond incanded for the protectorate of the ensuing election be assured that earth is not nor ever can be heaven while the seats of hell are natives of her soil when the seasons have become equal when the air breeds no disorders when its surface is no longer liable to blights and droughts then sickness will cease when men's passions are dead poverty will depart when lovers no longer akin to hate then brotherhood will exist We are very far from that state of present. Not so very far as you may suppose.

Starting point is 08:44:06 Observed a little old astronomer by named Marival. The poles proceed slowly, but securely. In a hundred thousand years, we shall all be underground, said Riland. The pole of the earth will coincide with the pole of the ecliptic, continued the astronomer. An universe of spring will be produced, and as a... become a paradise. And we shall, of course, enjoy the benefit of the change, said Riland contemptuously. We have strange news here, I observed. I had the newspaper in my hand, and as usual had turned to the

Starting point is 08:44:44 intelligence from Greece. It seems that the total destruction of Constantinople and the supposition that winter has purified the air of the fallen city gave the Greek's courage to visit its site and begin to rebuild it. But they tell us that the curse of God is on the place. for every one who has ventured within the walls has been tainted by the plague that this disease has spread in thrace in macedonia well and now fearing the virulence of infection during the coming heats a cordon has been drawn on the frontiers of thessaly and a strict quarantine exacted this intelligence brought us back from the prospect of paradise held out after the lapse of a hundred thousand years to the pain and misery at present existent upon earth we talked of the ravages made last year last year by pestilence in every quarter of the world, and of the dreadful consequences of a second visitation. We discussed the best means of preventing infection and of preserving health and activity in a large city thus afflicted. London, for instance, Marival did not join in this

Starting point is 08:45:47 conversation. Drawing near Idris, he proceeded to assure her that the joyful prospect of an earthly paradise after an hundred thousand years was clouded to him by the knowledge that in a certain period of time after an earthly hell of purgatory would occur when the ecliptic and equator would be at right angles. Our party at length broke up. We are all dreaming this morning, said Riland. It is as wise to discuss the probability of a visitation of the plague in our well-governed metropolis as to calculate the centuries which must escape before we can grow pineapples here in the open air. But though it seemed absurd to calculate upon the arrival of the plague in London, I could not reflect without extreme pain on the desolation this evil would cause in Greece.

Starting point is 08:46:33 The English, for the most part, talked of Thrace in Macedonia, as they would have a lunar territory, which, unknown to them, presented no distinct idea or interest to the mines. I had trod the soil. The faces of many of the inhabitants were familiar to me. In the towns, plains, hills and defiles of these countries, I had enjoyed unspeakable delight. as i journeyed through them the year before some romantic village some cottage or elegant abode there situated inhabited by the lovely and the good rose before my mental sight and the question haunted me is the plague there also

Starting point is 08:47:14 that same invincible monster which hovered over and devoured constantinople that fiend more cruel than tempest less tamed than fire is alas unchained in that beautiful country these reflections would not allow me to rest the political state of england became agitated as the time drew near when the new protector was to be elected this event excited the more interest since it was the current report that if the popular candidate riland should be chosen the question of the abolition of hereditary rank and other feudal relics would come under the consideration of parliament not a word had been spoken during the present session of any of these topics every year would depend upon the choice of a protector and the elections of the ensuing year yet this very silence was awful shewing the deep weight attributed to the question the fear of either party to hazard an ill-timed attack and the expectation of a furious contention when it should begin but although st stephens did not echo with the voice which filled each heart the newspapers teamed with nothing else and in private companies the conversation however remotely begun soon verged toward this central point, while voices were lowered and chairs drawn closer. The nobles did not hesitate to express their fear. The other party endeavored to treat the matter lightly.

Starting point is 08:48:40 Shame on the country, said Ryland. To lay so much stress upon words and fripery, it is a question of nothing, of the new painting of carriage panels and the embroidery of footmen's coats. Yet could England indeed doff her lordly trappings and be content with the democratic style of America? Were the pride of ancestry, the patrician spirit, the gentle courtesies and refined pursuits, splendid attributes of rank to be erased among us?

Starting point is 08:49:06 We were told that this would not be the case, that we were by nature or poetical people, a nation easily duped by words ready to array clouds in splendor and bestow honor on the dust. This spirit we could never lose, and it was to diffuse this concentrated spirit of birth that the new law was to be brought forward. We were assured that when the name and title of Englishmen was the sole patent of nobility, we should all be noble, that when no man, born under English's way, felt another his superior in rank, courtesy and refinement would become the birthright of all our countrymen. Let not England be so far disgraced as to have it imagine that it can be without nobles' nature's true nobility,

Starting point is 08:49:50 who bear their patent in their mean, who are from their cradle of their cradle. elevated above the rest of their species, because they are better than the rest. Among a race of independent and generous and well-educated men, in a country where the imagination is empress of men's minds, there needs be no fear that we should want a perpetual succession of the high-born and lordly. That party, however, could hardly yet be considered a minority in the kingdom, who extolled the ornament of the column the Corinthian capital of polished society. They appealed to prejudices without number, to old attachments and young hopes, to the expectation of thousands who might one day become peers. They set up as a scarecrow the specter of all that was

Starting point is 08:50:36 sordered, mechanic, and base in the commercial republics. The plague had come to Athens. Hundreds of English residents returned to their own country, Raymond's beloved Athenians, the free, the noble people of the divinest town in Greece. fell like ripe corn before the merciless sickle of the adversary. Its pleasant places were deserted. Its temples and palaces were converted into tombs. Its energies bent before towards the highest objects of human ambition were now forced to converge to one point,

Starting point is 08:51:12 the guarding against the innumerous arrows of the plague. At any other time, this disaster would have excited extreme compassion among us, but it was now passed over. while each mind was engaged by the coming controversy. It was not so with me, and the question of rank and right dwindled to insignificance in my eyes when I pictured the scene of suffering Athens. I heard of the death of only sons,

Starting point is 08:51:40 of wives and husbands most aboded, of the rending of ties twisted with the heart's fibers, a friend, losing friend, and young mother's mourning for their firstborn, and these moving incidents were grouped and painted in my mind by the knowledge of the persons, by my esteem and affection for the sufferers. It was the admirers, friends, fellow soldiers of Raymond, families that had welcomed Perdita to Greece,

Starting point is 08:52:08 and lamented with her the loss of her lord that were swept away and went to dwell with them in the undistinguishing too. The plague at Athens had been preceded and caused by the contagion from the east, and the scene of havoc and death continued to be acted there on a scale of fearful magnitude. A hope that the visitation of the present year would prove the last kept up the spirits of the merchants connected with these countries, but the inhabitants were driven to despair, or to a resignation which, arising from fanaticism, assumed the same dark hue. America had also received the taint, and were it yellow fever or plague, the epidemic was gifted with a virulence before unfelt.

Starting point is 08:52:55 The devastation was not confined to the towns, but spread throughout the country. The hunter died in the woods, the peasant in the cornfields, and the fissure on his native waters. A strange story was brought to us from the east, to which little credit would have been given had not the fact been attested

Starting point is 08:53:12 by a multitude of witnesses in various parts of the world. On the 21st of June, it was said that an hour before noon A black sun arose, an orb the size of that luminary, but dark, defined, whose beams were shadows, ascended from the west. In about an hour it had reached the meridian, and eclipsed the bright parent of day. Night fell upon every country, night, sudden, rayless, entire. The stars came out, shedding their ineffectual glimmerings on the light-witted earth,

Starting point is 08:53:48 but soon the dim ore passed from over the sun and lingered down the eastern heaven. As it descended, its dusky rays crossed the brilliant ones of the sun, and deadened or distorted them. The shadows of things assumed strange and ghastly shapes. The wild animals in the woods took fright of the unknown shapes figured on the ground. They fled, they do not wither, and the citizens were filled with greater dread at the convulsion which shook lions into civil streets, Bird's strong-winged eagles suddenly blinded fell in the marketplaces,

Starting point is 08:54:22 while owls and bats shewed themselves welcoming the early night. Gradually the object of fear sank beneath the horizon and to the last shot of shadowy beams into the otherwise radiant air. Such was the tale sent us from Asia, from the eastern extremity of Europe, and from Africa as far west as the golden coast. Whether this story were true or not, The effects were certain.

Starting point is 08:54:48 Through Asia, from the banks of the Nile to the shores of the Caspian, from the Hellespont, even to the sea of Oman, a sudden panic was driven. The men filled the mosques, the women veiled, hastened to the tombs, and carried offerings to the dead thus to preserve the living. The plague was forgotten in this new fear which the black sun had spread, and, though the dead multiplied, and the streets of Ispahan, of Peking, and of Deliq and of Deliq, were strewed with pestilent struck corpses. Men passed on gazing on the ominous sky,

Starting point is 08:55:22 regardless of the death beneath their feet. The Christians sought their churches, Christian maidens, even at the feast of roses, clad in white with shining veils sought in long procession, the places consecrated to their religion, filling the air with their hymns. While ever and anon from the lips of some poor mourner in the crowd, a voice of wailing, and the rest looked up fancying they could discern the sweeping wings of angels who passed over the earth lamenting the disasters about to fall on man. In the sunny climb of Persia, in the crowded cities of China, amidst the aromatic groves of Kashmir, and along the southern shores of the Mediterranean, such scenes had place. Even in Greece, the tale of the sun of darkness increased the fears and deceit,

Starting point is 08:56:16 spare of the dying multitude. We, in our cloudy aisle, were far removed from danger, and the only circumstance that brought these disasters at all home to us was the daily arrival of vessels from the east, crowded with emigrants, mostly English. For the Muslims, though the fear of death was spread keenly among them, still clung together. That, if they were to die, and if they were, death would as readily beat them on the homeless sea or in far England as in Persia. If they were to die, their bones might rest in earth made sacred by the relics of true believers. Mecca had never before been so crowded with pilgrims, yet the Arabs neglected to pillage

Starting point is 08:56:58 the caravans, but humble and weaponless they joined the procession, praying Muhammad to avert plague from their tents and deserts. i cannot describe the rapturous delight with which i turned from political brawls at home in the physical evils of distant countries to my own dear home to the selected abode of goodness and love to peace and the interchange of every sacred sympathy had i never quitted windsor these emotions would not have been so intense but i had in greece been the prey of fear and deplorable change in greece in greece after a period of anxiety and sorrow, I had seen depart two whose very names were the symbol of greatness and virtue. But such miseries could never intrude upon the domestic circle left to me, while secluded in our beloved forest, we passed our lives in tranquility. Some small change indeed the progress of years brought here. And time, as it is wont, stamped the.

Starting point is 08:58:07 traces of mortality on our pleasures and expectations. Idris, the most affectionate wife, sister and friend, was a tender and loving mother. The feeling was not with her as with many, a pastime. It was a passion. We had had three children, one, the second in age, died while I was in grace. This had dashed the triumphant and rapturous emotions of maternity with grief and fear. Before this event, the little being sprung from herself, the young heirs of her transient life, seemed to have a sure lease of existence. Now she dreaded that the pitiless destroyer might snatch remaining darlings, as it had snatched their brother. The least illness caused throes of terror. She was miserable as she were at all absent from them. Her treasure of happiness she had garnered

Starting point is 08:59:03 in their fragile being, and kept forever on the watch, lest the insidious. thief should as before steal these valued gems. She had fortunately small cause for fear. Alfred, now nine years old, was an upright, manly little fellow, with radiant brow, soft eyes, and gentle, though independent disposition. Our youngest was yet in infancy, but his downy cheek was sprinkled with the roses of health, and his unwearied vivacity filled our halls with innocent laughter. Clara had passed the age which, from its mute ignorance, was the source of the fears of Idris. Clara was dear to her to all.

Starting point is 08:59:45 There was so much intelligence combined with innocence, sensibility with forbearance and seriousness with perfect good humor, a beauty so transparent, united to such endearing simplicity that she hung like a pearl in the shrine of our possessions, a treasure of wonder and excellence. At the beginning of winter, our Alfred, now nine years of age, first went to school at Eton. This appeared to him the primary step towards manhood, and he was proportionably pleased. Community of study and amusement developed the best parts of his character, his steady perseverance, generosity, and well-governed firmness.

Starting point is 09:00:27 What deep and sacred emotions are excited in a father's bosom, when he first becomes convinced that his love for his child is not a mere instinct, but worthily bestowed, and that others less akin participate his approbation? It was supreme happiness to Idris and myself, to find that the frankness which Alfred's open brow indicated, the intelligence of his eyes, the tempered sensibility of his tones, were not delusions, but indications of talents and virtues which would grow with his growth and strengthen with his strength. At this period, the termination of an animal's love for its offspring. The true affection of the human parent commences. We no longer look on this dearest part of ourselves as a tender plant which we must cherish,

Starting point is 09:01:15 or a plaything for an idle hour. We build now on his intellectual faculties. We establish our hopes on his moral propensities. His weakness still imparts anxiety to this feeling. His ignorance prevents entire intimacy, but we begin to respect the future man and to endeavor to secure his esteem, even as if he were our equal? What can a parent have more at heart than the good opinion of his child? In all our transactions with him, our honor must be inviolate, the integrity of our relations untainted. Fate and circumstance may, when he arrives at maturity, separate us forever, but as his ages in danger, his consolation and hardship. Let the ardent youth forever bear with him through the rough path of life, love and honor for his parents.

Starting point is 09:02:09 We had lived so long in the vicinity of Eden that its population of young folks was well known to us. Many of them had been Alfred's playmates before they became his schoolfellows. We now watched this youthful congregation with redoubled interest. We marked the difference of character among the boys and endeavored to read the future man and the stripling. There is nothing more lovely. to which the heart more yearns than a free-spirited boy, gentle, brave, and generous. Several of the Etonians had these characteristics.

Starting point is 09:02:44 All were distinguished by a sense of honor and spirit of enterprise. In some, as they verged towards manhood, this degenerated into presumption, but the younger ones, lads a little older than our own, were conspicuous for their gallant and sweet dispositions. Here were the future governors of England, the men who, when our ardor was cold and our projects completed or destroyed forever, when our drama acted, we doffed the garb of the hour and assumed the uniform of age or of more equalizing death. Here were the beings who were to carry on the vast machine of society. Here were the lovers, husbands, fathers, here the landlord, the politician, the soldier.

Starting point is 09:03:29 some fancied that they were even now ready to appear on the stage, eager to make one among the dramatist persona of active life. It was not long since I was like one of these beardless aspirants. When my boy shall have obtained the place I now hold, I shall have tottered into a grey-headed, wrinkled old man. Strange system. Riddle of the sphinx, most awe-striking, that thus man remains while we the individuals pass away.

Starting point is 09:03:58 Such is, to borrow the words of an eloquent and philosophic writer, the mode of existence decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts, wherein by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, molding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole at one time is never old or middle-aged or young, but in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay. fall, renovation and progression. Willingly do I give place to thee, dear Alfred, advance offspring of tender love, child of our hopes, advance a soldier on the road to which I have been the pioneer. I will make way for thee. I have already put off the carelessness of childhood,

Starting point is 09:04:49 the unlined brow and springy gait of early years that they may adorn thee. Advance, and I will despoil myself still further, for thy advantage. Time shall rob me of the graces of maturity, shall take the fire from my eyes, and agility from my limbs, shall steal the better part of life, eager expectation and passionate love, and shower them in double portion on thy dear head. Advance, avail thyself of the gift, thou and thy comrades. And in the drama you are about to act, do not disgrace those who taught you to enter on the stage and to pronounce becomingly the parts assigned to you,

Starting point is 09:05:28 May your progress be uninterrupted and secure. Born during the spring tide of the hopes of man, may you lead up the summer to which no winter may succeed. End of Chapter 4. Volume 2, Chapter 5, The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org.

Starting point is 09:06:07 recording by Larry Maddox The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Volume 2, Chapter 5 Some disorder had surely crept into the course of the elements destroying their benignant influence. The wind, Prince of Air, raged through his kingdom, lashing the sea into fury, and subduing the rebel earth into some sort of obedience.

Starting point is 09:06:37 The God sends down his angry plagues from high. Famine and pestilence in heaps they die. Again in vengeance of his wrath he falls. On their great host and breaks their tottering walls, arrests their navies on the ocean's plain, and whelms their strength with mountains of the main. Their deadly power shook the flourishing countries of the south, and during winter, even we,

Starting point is 09:07:07 in our northern retreat begin to quake under their ill effects that fable is unjust which gives the superiority to the sun over the wind who has not seen the lights of earth

Starting point is 09:07:23 the balmy atmosphere and basking nature become dark cold and ungenial when the sleeping wind has awoke in the east or when the done clouds thickly

Starting point is 09:07:37 veil the sky, while the exhaustless stores of rain are poured down until the dank earth refusing to imbibe the superabundant moisture, it lies in pools on the surface. When the torch of day seems like a meteor to be quenched, who has not seen the cloud stirring north arise? The streak blue appear and soon an opening made in the vapors in the eye of the wind, through which the bright azure shines. The clouds become thin, an arc is formed forever rising upwards, till the universal cope being unveiled, the sun pours forth its rays, reanimated and fed by the breeze. Then mighty art thou, O wind, to be thrown above all of the rays. vice-guerance of nature's power whether thou comest destroying from the east or

Starting point is 09:08:41 pregnant with elementary life from the west thee the clouds obey the sun is a subservient to thee the shoreless ocean is thy slave thou sweepest over the earth and oaks the growth of centuries submit to thy viewless acts the snowdrift is scattered on the pinnacles of of the Alps. The avalanche thunders down their valleys. Thou holdest the keys of the frost, and canst first chain, and then set free the streams. Under thy gentle governance, the buds and leaves are borne. They flourish, nursed by thee. Why dost thou howl thus, O wind, by day and by night, for four long months, thy roarings

Starting point is 09:09:30 have not ceased? The shores of the sea are strewn with wrecks. Its nil welcoming surface has become impassable. The earth has shed her beauty in obedience to thy command. The frail balloon dares no longer sell on the agitated air. Thy ministers, the clouds, deluge the land with rain. Rivers forsake their banks. The wild torrent tears up the mountain path, plain and wood. And verdant dell are despoiled of their loveliness. Our very cities are wasted by thee. Alas, what will become of us?

Starting point is 09:10:10 It seems as if the giant waves of ocean and vast arms of the sea were about to wrench the deep-rooted island from its center and cast it a ruin and a wreck upon the fields of the Atlantic. What are we the inhabitants of this globe, least among the many that people infinite space? Our minds embrace infinity. The visible mechanism of our being is subject to merest accident.

Starting point is 09:10:41 Day by day we are forced to believe this. He whom a scratch has disorganized. He who disappears from apparent life under the influence of the hostile agency at work around us. Had the same powers as I. I also am subject to the same laws. In the face of all this, we call ourselves Lord. of the creation, welders of the elements, masters of life and death, and we allege in excuse of this arrogance that though the individual is destroyed, man continues forever.

Starting point is 09:11:20 Thus losing our identity, that of which we are chiefly conscious, we glory in the continuity of our species and learn to regard death without terror. But when any whole nation becomes a the victim of the destructive powers of exterior agents. Then indeed man shrinks into insignificance. He fills his tenure of life insecure, his inheritance on earth cut off. I remember after having witnessed the destructive effects of a fire, I could not even behold a small one in a stove without a sensation of fear. The mounting flames had curled around the building as a it fell and was destroyed.

Starting point is 09:12:08 They insinuated themselves into the substances about them, and the impediments to their progress yielded at their touch. Could we take integral parts of this power and not be subject to its operation? Could we domesticate a cub of this wild beast and not fear its growth and maturity? Thus we begin to fill with regard to. many visaged death let loose on the chosen districts of our fair habitation. And above all, with regard to the plague, we feared the coming summer, nations bordering on the already infected countries begin to enter upon serious plans for the better keeping out of the enemy.

Starting point is 09:12:57 We, a commercial people, were obliged to bring such schemes under consideration. and the question of contagion became matter of earnest disquisition. That the plague was not what is commonly called contagious, like the scarlet fever or extinct smallpox, was proved. It was called an epidemic. But the grand question was still unsettled of how this epidemic was generated and increased. If infection depended upon the air, The heir was subject to infection.

Starting point is 09:13:36 As, for instance, a typhus fever has been brought by ships to one seaport town, yet the very people who brought it there were incapable of communicating it in a town more fortunately situated. But how are we to judge of errors and pronounce, in such a city plague, will die unproductive? In such another, nature has provided for it a plentiful harvest. In the same way, individuals may escape 99 times and receive the death blow at the 100th, because bodies are sometimes in a state to reject the infection of malady, and at others, thirsty and bive it. These reflections made our legislators pause before they could decide on the laws to be put in force.

Starting point is 09:14:28 The evil was so widespread, so violent and imidicable, that no care, no prevention could be judged superfluous, which even added a chance to our escape. These were questions of prudence. There was no immediate necessity for an earnest caution. England was still secure. France, Germany, Italy, and Spain were interposed. walls yet without a breach between us and the plague. Our vessels truly were the sport of winds and waves, even as Gulliver was the toy of the Brab Dignasians,

Starting point is 09:15:12 but we on our stable abode could not be hurt in life or limb by these eruptions of nature. We could not fear, we did not, yet a feeling of awe, a breathless, sense, sentiment of wonder, a painful sense of the degradation of humanity, was introduced into every heart. Nature, our mother, and her friend had turned on us a brow of menace. She showed us plainly that though she permitted us to assign her laws and subdue her apparent powers, yet if she put forth a finger, we must quake. She could take out her globe, fringe with mountains girded by atmosphere, containing the condition of our being, and all that man's mind could invent or his force achieve,

Starting point is 09:16:03 she could take the ball in her hand and cast it into space where life would be drunk up, and man in all his efforts forever annihilated. These speculations were rife among us, yet not the less we proceeded in our daily occupations and our plans, whose accomplishment demanded the lapse of many years. No voice was heard telling us to hold. When foreign distresses came to be felt by us through the channels of commerce, we set ourselves to apply remedies. Subscriptions were made for the immigrants,

Starting point is 09:16:40 and merchants bankrupt by the failure of trade. The English spirit awoke to its full activity, and as it had ever done, set itself to resist the evil and to stand in the breach which diseased nature had suffered. chaos and death to make in the bounds and banks which had hitherto kept them out. At the commencement of summer, we began to feel that the mischief which had taken place in distant countries was greater than we had at first suspected. Quito was destroyed by an earthquake.

Starting point is 09:17:19 Mexico laid waste by the united effects of storm, pestilence and famine. Crowds of immigrants inundated the west of Europe, and our island had become the refuge of thousands. In the meantime, Rylan had been chosen protector. He had sought this office with eagerness under the idea of turning his whole forces to the suppression of the privileged orders of our community. His measures were thwarted and his schemes interrupted by this new state of things. Many of the foreigners were utterly destitute, and their increasing numbers at length forbade a recourse to the usual modes of relief. Trade was stopped by the failure of the interchange of cargo's usual between us, and America, India, Egypt, and Greece. A sudden break was made to the routine of our lives.

Starting point is 09:18:19 In vain, our protector and his partisans sought to conceal this truth. In vain day after today, he appointed a period for the discussion of the new laws concerning hereditary rank and privilege. In vain he endeavored to represent the evil as partial and temporary. These disasters came home to so many bosoms and through the various channels of commerce were carried so entirely into every class and division of the community that of necessity they became the first question in the state, the chief subjects to which we must turn our attention. Can it be true, each ask the other with wonder and dismay,

Starting point is 09:19:06 that whole countries are laid waste, whole nations annihilated by these disorders in nature? The vast cities of America, the fertile plains of Hindustan, the crowded abodes of the Chinese are menaced with utter ruin. Where late the busy multitudes assembled for pleasure or profit, now only the sound of wailing and misery is heard. The error is poisoned, and each human being in hell's death, even while in youth and health, their hopes are in the flower. We called to mind the plague of 1348 when it was calculated that a third of mankind had been destroyed, As yet Western Europe was uninfected.

Starting point is 09:19:54 Would it always be so? Oh yes, it would, countrymen. Fear not. In the still and cultivated wilds of America, what wonder that among its other giant destroyers plague should be numbered. It is of old a native of the East, sister of the tornado, the earthquake, and the Psy Moon.

Starting point is 09:20:17 Child of the sun, nursling of the tropics, it would expire in these clines. It drinks the dark blood of the inhabitant of the South, but it never feasts on the pale-faced Celt. If perchance some stricken Asiatic came among us, Plague dies with him, uncommunicated and innoxious. Let us weep for our brethren. that we can never experience their reverse.

Starting point is 09:20:52 Let us lament over and assist the children of the Garden of the Earth. Late we envied their abodes, their spicy groves, fertile plains, and abundant loveliness. But in this mortal life, extremes are always matched. The thorn grows with the rose, the poison tree, and the cinnamon mingle their boughs. Persia with its cloth of gold, marble halls, an infinite wealth is now a tomb the tent of the arab is fallen in the sands and his horse spurns the ground and bridled and unsaddled the voice of lamentation fills the valley of cashmere its dells and woods its cool fountains and gardens and gardens of roses are polluted by the dead in circassia and georgia the spirit of beauty weeps over the ruin of its favorite temple the form of woman Our own distresses, though they were occasioned by the fictitious reciprocity of commerce, increased in due proportion.

Starting point is 09:22:00 Bankers, merchants, and manufacturers, whose trade depended on exports and interchange of wealth, became bankrupt. Such things when they happen singly affect only the immediate parties, but the prosperity of the nation was now shaken by frequent and extensive losses. families bred in opulence and luxury were reduced to beggary. The very state of peace in which we gloried was injurious. There were no means of employing the idol or of sending any overplus population out of the country. Even the source of colonies was dried up. For in New Holland, Van Diemen's Land and the Cape of Good Hope plague raged. O for some mechanical vile to purge unwholesome nature

Starting point is 09:22:53 And bring back the earth to its accustomed health Rylan was a man of strong intellects And quick and sound decision in the usual course of things But he stood aghast at the multitude of evils That gathered around us Must he taxed the land in interest To assist our commercial population To do this he must gain the world

Starting point is 09:23:19 favor of the chief landholders, the nobility of the country, and these were his vowed enemies. He must conciliate them by abandoning his favorite scheme of equalization. He must confirm them in their manoral rights. He must sell his cherished plans for the permanent good of his country for temporary relief. He must aim no more at the dear object of his ambition. Throwing his arms aside, he must, for present ends, give up the ultimate object of his endeavors. He came to Windsor to consult with us. Every day added to his difficulties, the arrival of fresh vessels with immigrants, the total cessation of commerce.

Starting point is 09:24:08 The starving multitude that thronged around the palace of the protectorate were circumstances not to be tampered with. The blow was struck. The aristocracy obtained all they wished, and they subscribed to a 12-months bill which levied 20% on all the rent rolls of the country. Calm was now restored to the metropolis and to the populace cities before driven to desperation, and we returned to the consideration of distant calamities, wondering if the future would bring any alleviation to their excess. It was was August, so there could be small hope of relief during the heats. On the contrary, the disease gained virulence, while starvation did its accustomed work.

Starting point is 09:25:02 Thousands died unlamented, for beside the yet warm corpse the mourner was stretched, made mute by death. On the 18th of this month, news arrived in London that the plague was in France and Italy. These tidings were at first whispered about town, but no one dared express aloud the soul-quailing intelligence. When anyone met a friend in the street, he only cried as he hurried on. You know, while the other, with an ejaculation of fear and horror, would answer, what will become of us? At length it was mentioned in the newspapers. The paragraph was inserted in an obscure part.

Starting point is 09:25:52 We regret to state that there can be no longer a doubt of the plague having been introduced at Leghorn, Genoa, and Merseys. No word of comment followed, and Reader made his own fearful one. we were as a man who hears that his house is burning and yet hurries through the streets borne along by a lurking hope of a mistake till he turns the corner and sees his sheltering roof enveloped in a flame before it had been a rumor but now in words unerasable in definite and undeniable print the knowledge went forth it's obscured of situation rendered it the more conspicuous. The diminutive letters grew gigantic to the bewildered eye of fear. They seemed graven with a pen of iron, impressed by fire, woven in the clouds, stamped on the very front of the universe.

Starting point is 09:27:06 The English, whether travelers or residents, came pouring in one great revoltsive, dream. Back on their own country and with them crowds of Italians and Spaniards. Our little island was filled even to bursting. At first an unusual quantity of species made its appearance with the immigrants, but these people had no means of receiving back into their hands what they spent among us. With the advance of summer and the increase of distemper, rents were unpaid, and their remittance failed them. It was impossible to see these crowds of wretched, perishing creatures, late nerslings of luxury, and not stretched out a hand to save them, as at the conclusion of the 18th century, the English unlocked their hospitable store for the relief of those driven from

Starting point is 09:28:06 their homes by political revolution. So now they were not backward in affording aid to the victims of more widespread calamity. We had many foreign friends whom we eagerly sought out and relieved from dreadful penury. Our castle became an asylum for the unhappy. A little population occupied its halls. The revenue of its possessor, which had always found a mode of expenditure, congenial to his generous nature, was now attended to more parsimoniously that it might embrace a wider portion of utility. It was not, however, money except partially, but the necessities of life that became scarce. It was difficult to find an immediate remedy. The usual one of imports was entirely cut off. In this emergency, to feed the very people

Starting point is 09:29:07 to whom we had given refuge, we were obliged to yield to the plow and to the matto. are pleasure grounds and parks. Livestock diminished sensibly in the country from the effects of the great demand in the market. Even the poor deer and flared protegees were obliged to fall for the sake of worthier pensioners. The labor necessary to bring the lands to this sort of culture employed and fed the outcasts of the diminished manufacturing.

Starting point is 09:29:43 luxuries. Adrian did not rest only with the exertions he could make with regard to his own possessions. He addressed himself to the wealthy of the land. He made proposals in Parliament, little adapted to please the rich, but his earnest pleadings and benevolent eloquence were irresistible. To give up their pleasure grounds to the agriculturist, to diminish sensibly the number of horses kept for the purposes of luxury throughout the country, where means obvious, but unpleasing yet to the honor of the English be it recorded that although natural disinclination made them delay a while yet when the misery of their fellow creatures became glaring and enthusiastic generosity inspired their decrees the most luxurious were often the first to part with their indulgencies as is common in communities of fashion was set. The high-born ladies of the country would have deemed themselves disgraced if they had now enjoyed what they before called a necessary, the ease of a carriage. Chairs, as in olden time, and Indian palanquins were introduced for the infirm, but else

Starting point is 09:31:06 it was nothing singular to see females of rank going on foot to places of fashion. a fashionable resort. It was more common for all who possessed landed property to secede to their estates, attended by whole troops of the indigent, to cut down their woods to erect temporary dwellings, and to portion out their parks, parterres and flower gardens, to necessitous families. Many of these of high rank in their own countries,

Starting point is 09:31:39 now with hoe in hand, turned up the source, It was found necessary at last to check the spirit of sacrifice and to remind those whose generosity proceeded to lavish waste that until the present state of things became permanent, of which there was no likelihood, it was wrong to carry change so far as to make a reaction difficult. Experience demonstrated that in a year or two, pestilence would cease. It were well that in the meantime we should not have destroyed our fine breeds of horses or have utterly changed the face of the ornamented portion of the country. It may be imagined that things were in a bad state indeed before this spirit of benevolence could have struck such deep roots. The infection had now spread in the southern provinces of France, but that country had so many resources in the way of agriculture that the rush of population from one part of it to another and its increase through foreign immigration was less felt than with us. The panic struck appeared of more injury than disease

Starting point is 09:32:57 and its natural concomitance. Winter was hailed, a general and never-failing physician. The in browning woods, the swalling rivers, the evening mist. the morning frosts were welcome with gratitude. The effects of purifying cold were immediately felt, and the lists of mortality abroad were curtailed each week. Many of our visitors left us. Those whose homes were far in the south, fled delightedly from our northern winter and sought their native land,

Starting point is 09:33:38 secure of plenty even after their full, fearful visitation. We breathed again. What the coming summer would bring, we knew not, but the present months were our own, and our hopes of a cessation of pestilence were high. End of Volume 2, Chapter 5. Recording by Larry Maddox, Saw Lake City, www.R.E.L.usa.com. Volume 2, Chapter 6 of The Last Man. This is a Librevox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 09:34:32 For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Christine Blashford, www.orghum. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 2, Chapter 6. I have lingered thus long on the extreme bank, the wasting shoal that stretched into the stream of life, dallying with the shadow of death. thus long i have cradled my heart in retrospection of past happiness when hope was why not for ever thus i am not immortal and the thread of my history might be spun out to the limits of my existence but the same sentiment that first led me to portray scenes replete with tender recollections now bids me hurry on the same yearning of this warm panting heart that has made me in written words record my vagabond youth my serene manhood and the passions of my soul makes me now recoil from further delay i must complete my work here then i stand as i said besieged my vagabond youth my serene manhood and the passions of my soul makes me now recoil from further delay i must complete my work here then i stand as i said beset the fleetwaters of the flowing years and now away spread the sail and strain with awe hurrying by dark impending crags a down steep rapids even to the sea of desolation i have reached yet one moment one brief interval before i put from shore once once again let me fancy myself as i was in two thousand and ninety-four in my abode at windsor let me close my eyes and imagine that the immeasurable boughs of its oak still shadow me its castle walls are near let fancy portray the joyous scene of the twentieth of june such as even now my aching heart recalls it

Starting point is 09:35:52 circumstances had called me to london here i heard talk that symptoms of the plague had occurred in hospitals of that city i returned to windsor my brow was clouded my heart heavy i entered the little park as was my custom at the frogmore gate on my way to the castle a great part of these grounds had been given to cultivation and strips of potato land and corn were scattered here and there the rooks cored loudly in the trees above mixed with their hoarse cries i heard a lively strain of music it was alfred's birthday the young people the etonians and children of the neighbouring gentry held a mock fair to which all the country people were invited the park was speckled by tents whose flaunting colours and gaudy flags waving in the sunshine added to the gaiety of the scene on a platform erected beneath the terrace a number of the younger part of the assembly were dancing i leaned against a tree to observe them the band played the wild eastern air of waver introduced in aben hassan its volatile notes gave wings to the feet of the dancers while the lookers-on unconsciously beat time at first the tripping measure lifted my spirit with it and for a moment my eyes gladly followed the mazes of the dance the revulsion of thought passed like keen steel to my heart ye are all going to die i thought already your tomb is built up around you a while because you are gifted with agility and strength you fancy that you live but frail is the bower of flesh than in casket's life dissoluble the silver cord that binds you to it the joyous soul charioted from pleasure to pleasure by the graceful mechanism of well-formed limbs will suddenly feel the axel-tree give way and spring and will dissolve in dust not one of you o fated crowd can escape not one not my own ones not my idris and her babes horror and misery already the gay dance vanished the green sward was strewn with corpses and the blue air above became fetid with deathly exhalations shriek ye clarens ye loud trumpets howl pall dirge on dirge rouse the funereal chords let the air ring with dire wailing let wild discord rush on the wings of the wind already i hear it while guardian angels attendant on humanity their task achieved hasten away and their departure is announced by melancholy strains. Faces all unseemly with weeping, forced open my lids. Faster and faster many groups of these

Starting point is 09:37:54 woebegone countenances strunged around, exhibiting every variety of wretchedness. Well-known faces mingled with the distorted creations of fancy. Ashy pale, Raymond and Padeta sat apart, looking on with sad smiles. Adrian's countenance flitted across, tainted by death. Idris, with eyes languidly closed and livid lips was about to slide into the wide grave. The confusion grew, their looks of sorrow changed to mockery. They nodded their heads in time to the music, whose clang became maddening. I felt that this was insanity. I sprang forward to throw it off. I rushed into the midst of the crowd. Idris saw me, with light steps she advanced, as I folded her in my arms, feeling, as I did that I thus enclosed what was to mere world, yet frail as the water-drop which the

Starting point is 09:38:34 noonday sun will drink from the water-lily's cup, tears filled my eyes, and want to be thus moistened. The joyful welcome of my boys, the soft gratulation of Clara, the pressure of Adrian's hand, contributed to unmanned me. I felt that they were near, that they were safe, yet, me thought this was all deceit, the earth reeled, the firm and rooted trees moved, dizziness came over me, I sank to the ground. My beloved friends were alarmed, nay, they expressed their alarm so anxiously that I dared not pronounce the word plague, that hovered on my lips, lest they should construe my perturbed looks into a symptom, and see infection in my languor. I had scarcely recovered, and with feigned hilarity had brought back smiles into my little circle, when we saw Ryland approach.

Starting point is 09:39:12 Rylund had something the appearance of a farmer, of a man whose muscles and full-grown stature had been developed under the influence of vigorous exercise and exposure to the elements. This was, to a great degree the case, for, though a large-landed proprietor, yet being a projector and of an ardent and industrious disposition, he had on his own estate given himself up to agricultural labours. When he went as ambassador to the northern states of America, he, for some time, planned his entire migration, and went so far as to make several journeys far westward on that immense continent for the purpose of choosing the site of. of his new abode ambition turned his thoughts from these designs ambition which laboring through various lets and hindrances had now led him to the summit of his hopes in making him lord protector of england his countenance was rough but intelligent his ample brow and quick grey eyes seemed to look out over his own plans and the opposition of his enemies his voice was stentorian his hand stretched out in debate seemed by its gigantic and muscular form to warn his hearers that words were not his only weapons few people had discovered some cowardice and much infirmity of purpose under this imposing exterior. No man could crush a butterfly on the wheel with better effect. No man better cover a speedy retreat from powerful adversary. This had been the secret of his secession at the time of Lord Raymond's election. In the unsteady glance of his eye, in his extreme desire to learn the opinions

Starting point is 09:40:27 of all, in the feebleness of his handwriting, these qualities might be obscurely traced, but they were not generally known. He was now our Lord Protector. He had canvassed eagerly for this post. His protectorate was to be distinguished by every kind of innovation on the aristocracy. This, his selected task was exchanged for the far different one of encountering the ruin caused by the convulsions of physical nature he was incapable of meeting these evils by any comprehensive system he had resorted to expedient after expedient and could never be induced to put a remedy in force till it came too late to be of use certainly the riland that advanced towards us now bore small resemblance to the powerful ironical seemingly fearless canvasser for the first rank among englishmen our native oak as his partisans called him was visited truly by a nipping winter he scarcely appeared half his usual height his joints were unknit his limbs would not support him his face was contracted his eye wandering debility of purpose and dastard fear were expressed in every gesture in answer to our eager questions one word alone fell as it were involuntarily from his convulsed lips the plague where everywhere we must fly all fly but whither no man can tell there is no refuge on earth it comes on us like a thousand packs of wolves we must all fly where shall you go where can any of us go these words were syllable trembling by the iron man adrian replied whither indeed would you fly we must all remain and do our best to help our suffering fellow-creatures help said rylund there is no help great god who talks of help all the world has the plague then to avoid it we must quit the world observed adrian with a gentle smile

Starting point is 09:41:56 riland groaned cold drops stood on his brow it was useless to oppose his paroxysm of terror but we soothed and encouraged him so that after an interval he was better able to explain to us the ground of his alarm it had come sufficiently home to him one of his servants while waiting on him had suddenly fallen down dead the physician declared that he died of the plague we endeavoured to calm him but our own hearts were not calm i saw the eye of idris wonder from me to her children with an anxious appeal to my judgment adrian was absorbed in meditation for myself i own that rylans words rang in my ears all the world was infected in what uncontaminated seclusion could i save my beloved treasures until the shadow of death had passed from over the earth we sunk into silence a silence that drank in the doleful accounts and prognostications of our guest we had receded from the crowd and ascending the steps of the terrace sought the castle our change of cheer struck those nearest to us and by means of riland's servants the report soon spread that he had fled from the plague in london the sprightly parties broke up they assembled in whispering groups the spirit of gaiety was eclipsed the music ceased and bylain's the young people left their occupations and gathered together the lightness of heart which had dressed them in masquerade habits had decorated their tents and assembled them in fantastic groups appeared as sin against and a provocative too the awful destiny that had laid its palsying hand upon hope and life the merriment of the hour was an unholy mockery of the sorrows of man the foreigners whom we had among us who had fled from the plague in their own country now saw their last asylum invaded and fear making them garrulous they described to eager listeners the miseries they had beheld in cities visited by the calamity and and gave fearful accounts of the insidious and irremediable nature of the disease we had entered the castle idris stood at a window that overlooked the park her maternal eyes sought her own children among the young crowd an italian lad had got an audience about him and with animated gestures was describing some scene of horror alfred stood immovable before him his whole attention absorbed little evelyn had endeavoured to draw clara away to play with him but the italian's tale arrested her she crept near her lustrous eyes fixed on the speaker either watching the crowd in the park or occupied by pay

Starting point is 09:43:56 painful reflection, we were all silent. Ryland stood by himself in an embrasure of the window. Adrian paced the hall, revolving some new and overpowering idea. Suddenly he stopped and said, I have long expected this. Could we in reason expect that this island should be exempt from the universal visitation? The evil is come home to us, and we must not shrink from our fate. What are your plans, my lord Protector, for the benefit of our country? For Heaven's Love, Windsor! cried Ryland. Do not mock me with that title. Death and disease level all men. I neither pretend to protect nor govern or hospital. Such will England quickly become. Do you then intend now in time of peril to recede from your duties?

Starting point is 09:44:31 Duties? Speak rationally, my lord, when I am a plague-spotted corpse, where will my duties be? Every man for himself. The devil take the protectorship, say I, if it expose me to danger. Faint-hearted man, cried Adrian indignantly. Your countrymen put their trust in you, and you betray them. I betray them, said Ryland. The plague betrays me. Faint-hearted, it is well, shut up in your castle, out of danger, to boast yourself out of fear. Take the protectorship, who will, before God, I renounce it. And before God, replied his opponent fervently, do I receive it? No one will canvass for this honour now. None envy my danger or labours. Deposit your powers in my hands. Long have I fought with death, and much, he stretched out his thin hand. Much have I suffered

Starting point is 09:45:08 in the struggle. It is not by flying, but by facing the enemy that we can conquer. If my last combat is now about to be fought, and I am to be worsted, so let it be. But come, Ryland, recollect yourself. Men have hitherto thought you magnanimous and wise. Will you cast aside these titles? Consider the panic your departure will occasion. Return to London. I will go with you. Encourage the people by your presence. I will incur all the danger. Shame, shame, if the first magistrate of England be foremost to renounce his duties. Meanwhile, among our guests in the park, all thoughts of festivity had faded. As summerflies are scattered by rain, so did this congregation, late, noisy and happy, in sadness and melancholy murmurs break up, dwindling away apace.

Starting point is 09:45:47 With the set sun and the deepening twilight, the park became nearly empty. Adrian and Rylind was still in earnest discussion we had prepared a banquet for our guests in the lower hall of the castle and did the idris and i repaired to receive and entertain the few that remained there is nothing more melancholy than a merry meeting thus turned to sorrow the gala dresses the decorations gay as they might otherwise be receive a solemn and funereal appearance if such change be painful from lighter causes it weighed with intolerable heaviness from the knowledge that the earth's desolator had at last even as an arch fiend lightly overlet the boundaries our precautions raised and at once enthroned himself in the full and beating heart of our country idris sat at the top of the half-empty hall pale and tearful she almost forgot her duties as hostess her eyes were fixed on her children alfred's serious air showed that he still revolved the tragic story related by the italian boy evelyn was the only mirthful creature present he sat on clara's lap and making matter of glee from his own fancies laughed aloud the vaulted roof echoed again his infant tone the poor mother who had brooded long over and suppressed the expression of her anguish now burst into tears and folding her babe in her arms hurried from the from the hall clara and alfred followed while the rest of the company in confused murmur which grew louder and louder gave voice to their many fears the younger part gathered round me to ask my advice and those who had friends in london were anxious beyond the rest to ascertain the present extent of disease in the metropolis i encouraged them with such thoughts of cheer as presented themselves i told them exceedingly few deaths had yet been occasioned by pestilence and gave them hopes as we were the last visited so the calamity might have lost its most venomous power before it had reached us the cleanliness habits of order and and the manner in which our cities were built were all in our favour.

Starting point is 09:47:25 As it was an epidemic, its chief force was derived from pernicious qualities in the air, and it would probably do little harm where this was naturally salubrious. At first I had spoken only to those nearest me, but the whole assembly gathered about me, and I found that I was listened to by all. My friends, I said, Our risk is common, our precautions and exertions shall be common also. If manly courage and resistance can save us, we will be saved. We will fight the enemy to the last.

Starting point is 09:47:50 Plague shall not find us a ready prey. we will dispute every inch of ground, and by methodical and inflexible laws, pile invincible barriers to the progress of our foe. Perhaps in no part of the world has she met with so systematic and determined in opposition. Perhaps no country is naturally so well protected against our invader, nor has nature anywhere been so well assisted by the hand of man. We will not despair. We are neither cowards nor fatalists, but believing that God has placed the means for our preservation in our own hands, we will use these means to our utmost. Remember that cleanliness sobriety and even good humour and benevolence are our best medicines there was little i could add to this general exhortation for the plague though in london was not among us i dismissed the guests therefore and they went thoughtful more than sad to await the events in store for them

Starting point is 09:48:36 i now sought adrian anxious to hear the result of his discussion with ryland he had in part prevailed the lord protector consented to return to london for a few weeks during which time things should be so arranged as to occasion less consternation at his departure adrian and idris were together the sadness with which the former had first heard that the plague was in london had vanished the energy of his purpose informed his body of strength the solemn joy of enthusiasm and self-devotion illuminated his countenance and the weakness of his physical nature seemed to pass from him as the cloud of humanity did in the ancient fable from the divine lover of semile he was endeavouring to encourage his sister and to bring her to look on his intent in a less tragic light than she was prepared to do and with passionate eloquence he unfolded his designs to her let me at the first word he said relieve your mind from all fear on my account i will not task myself beyond my powers nor will i needlessly seek danger i feel that i know what ought to be done and as my presence is necessary for the accomplishment of my plans i will take especial care to preserve my life i am now going to undertake an office fitted for me i cannot intrigue or work torturous path through the labyrinth of men's vices and passions but i can bring patience and sympathy and such aid as art affords to the bed of disease i can raise from earth the miserable orphan and awaken to new hopes the shut heart of the mourner i can enchain the plague in limits and set a term to the misery it would occasion courage forbearance and watchfulness are the forces i bring towards this great work oh i shall be something now for my birth i have aspired like the eagle but unlike the eagle my wings have failed and my vision has been blinded disappointment and sickness have hitherto held dominion over me twin-born with me my wood was for ever enchained by the shall-not of these my tyrants a shepherd-boy that tends a silly flock on the mountains was more in a scale of society than i congratulate me then that i have found fitting scope for my powers i have often thought of offering my services to the pestilent stricken towns of france and italy but fear of paining you and expectation of this catastrophe withheld me to england and to english men i dedicate myself if i can save one of her mighty spirits from the deadly shaft if i can ward disease from one of her smiling cottages i shall not have lived in vain

Starting point is 09:50:37 strange ambition this yet such was adrian he appeared given up to contemplation averse to excitement a lowly student a man of visions but afford him worthy theme and like to the lark at break of day arising from sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate so did he spring up from listlessness and unproductive thought to the highest pitch of virtuous action with him went enthusiasm the high wrought resolve the eye that without blenching could look at death with us remained sorrow anxiety and unendurable expectation of evil the man says lord bacon who hath wife and children has given hostages to fortune vain was all philosophical reasoning vain all fortitude vain vain vain a reliance on probable good i might heap high the scale with logic courage and resignation but let one fear for idris and our children enter the opposite one and overweighed it kicked the beam the plague was in london fools that we were not long ago to have foreseen this we wept over the ruin of the boundless continents of the east and the desolation of the western world while we fancied that the little channel between our island and the rest of the earth was to preserve us alive among the dead it were no mighty leap methinks from calais to dover the eye easily discerns the sisterland they were united once and the little path that runs between looks in a map but as a trodden footway through the high grass yet this small interval was to save us the sea was to rise a wall of adamant without disease and and misery within a shelter from evil a nook of the garden of paradise a particle of celestial soil which no evil could invade truly we were wise in our generation to imagine all these things but we are awake now the plague is in london the air of england is tainted and her sons and daughters strew the unwholesome earth and now the sea late our defence seems our prison bound hemmed in by its gulfs we shall die like the famished inhabitants of a besieged town other nations have a fellowship in death but we shut out from all neighbourhood must bury our own dead and little england to become a wide, wide tomb. This feeling of universal misery assumed concentration and shape when I looked on my wife

Starting point is 09:52:29 and children, and the thought of danger to them possessed my whole being with a fear. How could I save them? I revolved a thousand and a thousand plans. They should not die. First I would be gathered to nothingness, air infection should come near those idols of my soul. I would walk barefoot through the world to find an uninfected spot. I would build my home on some wave-tossed plank, drifted about on the barrens, shoreless ocean. I would betake me with them to some wild-beasts den where a tiger's

Starting point is 09:52:53 cubs which i would slay had been reared in health i would seek the mountain eagles eerie and live years suspended in some inaccessible recess of a sea-bounding cliff no labour too great no scheme too wild if it promised life to them oh ye heart-strings of mine could ye be torn asunder and my soul not spend itself in tears of blood for sorrow idris after the first shock regained a portion of fortitude she studiously shut out all prospect of the future and cradled her heart in present blessings she never for a moment lost sight of her children but while they in health sported about her she could cherish contentment and hope a strange and wild restlessness came over me the more intolerable because i was forced to conceal it my fears for adrian were ceaseless august had come and the symptoms of plague increased rapidly in london it was deserted by all who possessed the power of removing and he the brother of my soul was exposed to the perils to the peril of my soul was exposed to the perils from which all but slaves and chained by circumstance fled he remained to combat the fiend his side and guarded his toils and shed infection might even reach him and he die unattended and alone by day and night these thoughts pursued me i resolved to visit london to see him to quiet these agonising throes by the sweet medicine of hope or the opiate of despair it was not until i arrived at brentford that i perceived much change in the face of the country the better sort of houses were shut up the busy trade of the town palsied there was an air of anxiety among the few passengers i met and they looked wonderingly at my carriage the first they had seen pass towards london since pestilence sat on its high places and possessed its busy streets i met several funerals they were slenderly attended by mourners and were regarded by the spectators as omens of direst import some gazed on these possessions with wild eagerness others fled timidly some wept aloud adrian's chief endeavour after the immediate succour of the sick had been to disguise the symptoms and progress of the plague from the inhabitants of london he knew that fear and melancholy forebodings were powerful assistance to disease that desponding and brooding care rendered the physical nature of man peculiarly susceptible of infection no unseemly sights were therefore discernible the shops were in general open the concourse of passengers in some degree kept up but although the appearance of an infected town was avoided to me who had not beheld it since the commencement of the visitation london appeared sufficiently

Starting point is 09:54:59 changed. There were no carriages, and grass had sprung high in the streets. The houses had a desolate look. Most of the shutters were closed, and there was a gasped and frightened stare in the persons I met, very different from the usual business-like demeanour of the Londoners. My solitary carriage attracted notice as it rattled along towards the protectoral palace, and the fashionable streets leading to it were still more dreary and deserted appearance. I found Adrian's antechamber crowded. It was his hour-for-giving audience. I was unwilling to disturb his labours, and waited, watching the ingress and egress of the petitioners. They consisted of people of the middling and lower classes of society, whose means of subsistence failed with the cessation of trade, and of the busy spirit of money-making, in all its branches peculiar to our country. There was an air of anxiety, sometimes of terror, in the newcomers, strongly contrasted with the resigned and even satisfied mien of those who had had had audience. I could read the influence of my friend in their quickened motions and cheerful faces. Two o'clock struck, after which none were admitted, those who had been disappointed went sullenly or sorrowfully away, while I entered the audience to.

Starting point is 09:55:59 chamber i was struck by the improvement that appeared in the health of adrian he was no longer bent to the ground like an overnursed flower of spring that shooting up beyond its strength is weighed down even by its own coronal of blossoms his eyes were bright his countenance composed an air of concentrated energy was diffused over his whole person much unlike its former languor he sat at the table with several secretaries who were arranging petitions or registering the notes made during that day's audience two or three petitioners were still in attendance i admired his justice and patience those who possessed a power of living out of london he advised immediately to quit it affording them the means of so doing others whose trade was beneficial to the city or who possessed no other refuge he provided with advice for better avoiding the epidemic relieving a-releaving and relieving overloaded families supplying the gaps made in others by death order comfort and even health rose under his influence as from the touch of a magician's wand i am glad you are come he said to me when we were at last alone i can only spare a few minutes and must tell you much in that time the plague is now in progress it is useless closing one's eyes to the fact the deaths increase each week what will come i cannot guess as yet thank god i am equal to the government of the town and i look only to the present riland whom i have so long detained has stipulated that i shall suffer him to depart before the end of this month the deputy appointed by parliament is dead another therefore must be named i have advanced my claim and i believe that i shall have no competitor to-night the question is to be decided as there is a call of the house for the purpose you must nominate me lionel ryland for shame cannot show himself but you my friend will do me this service how lovely is devotion here was a youth for the use for the use for the purpose how lovely is devotion here was a youth for royally sprung, bred in luxury, by nature averse to the usual struggles of a public life, and now, in time of danger, at a period when to live was the utmost scope of the ambitious,

Starting point is 09:57:39 he, the beloved and heroic Adrian, made in sweet simplicity, and offered to sacrifice himself for the public good. The very idea was generous and noble, but beyond this, his unpretending manner, his entire want of the assumption of a virtue, rendered his act ten times more touching. I would have withstood his request, but I had seen the good he diffused. I felt that his resolves were not to be shaken, so with a heavy heart I can consented to do as he asked. He grasped my hand affectionately. Thank you, he said. You have relieved me from a painful dilemma, and are, as you ever were, the best of my friends. Farewell, I must now leave you for a few

Starting point is 09:58:11 hours. Go you and converse with Riland. Although he deserts his post in London, he may be of the greatest service in the north of England, by receiving and assisting travellers, and contributing to supply the metropolis with food. Awaken him, I entreat you, to some sense of duty. Adrian left me, as I afterwards learnt upon his daily task of visiting the hospitals and inspecting the crowd in parts of London. I found Ryland much altered, even from what he had been when he visited Windsor. Perpetual fear had jaundiced his complexion and shriveled his whole person. I told him of the business of the evening, and a smile relaxed the contracted muscles. He desired to go. Each day he expected to be infected by pestilence,

Starting point is 09:58:46 each day he was unable to resist the gentle violence of Adrian's detention. The moment Adrian should be legally elected his deputy, he would escape to safety. under this impression he listened to all i said and elevated almost to joy by the near prospect of his departure he entered into a discussion concerning the plans he should adopt in his own county forgetting for the moment his cherished resolution of shutting himself up from all communication in the mansion and grounds of his estate in the evening adrian and i proceeded to westminster as we went he reminded me of what i was to say and do yet strange to say i entered the chamber without having once reflected on my purpose adrian remained in the coffee-room while i in compliance with his desire took my seat in st stephen There reigned unusual silence in the chamber. I had not visited it since Raymond's protectorate, a period conspicuous for numerous attendance of members, for the eloquence of the speakers and the warmth of the debate.

Starting point is 09:59:35 The benches were very empty. Those by custom occupied by the hereditary members were vacant, the city members were there, the members for the commercial towns, few landed proprietors, and not many of those who entered Parliament for the sake of a career. The first subject that occupied the attention of the House was an address from the Lord Protector,

Starting point is 09:59:51 praying them to appoint a deputy during a necessary absent on his part a silence prevailed till one of the members coming to me whispered that the earl of windsor had sent him word that i was to move his election in the absence of the person who had been first chosen for this office now for the first time i saw the full extent of my task and i was overwhelmed by what i had brought on myself rylund had deserted his post through fear of the plague from the same fear adrian had no competitor and i the nearest kinsman of the earl of windsor was to propose his election i was to thrust this selected and matchless friend into the post of danger impossible that i was cast i would offer myself as candidate the few members who were present had come more for the sake of terminating the business by securing a legal attendance than under the idea of a debate i had risen mechanically my knees trembled irresolution hung on my voice as i uttered a few words on the necessity of choosing a person adequate to the dangerous task in hand but when the idea of presenting myself in the room of my friend intruded the load of doubt and pain was taken from off me my words flowed spontaneously my utterance was firm and quick i adverted to what adrian had already done i promised the same vigilance in furthering all his views i drew a touching picture of his vacillating health i boasted of my own strength i prayed them to save even from himself this scion of the noblest family in england my alliance with him was the pledge of my sincerity my union with his sister my children his presumptive heirs were the hostages of my truth this unexpected turn in the debate was quickly communicated to adrian he hurried in and witnessed the termination of my impassioned harangue i did not see him my soul was in my words my eyes could not perceive that which was while a vision of adrian's form tainted by pestilence and sinking in death floated before them he seized my hand as i concluded unkind he cried he cried you have betrayed me then springing forwards with the air of one who had a right to command he claimed the place of deputy as his own he had bought it he said with danger and paid for it with toil his ambition rested there and after an interval devoted to the interests of his country was i to step in and reap the profit let them remember what london had been when he arrived

Starting point is 10:01:45 the panic that prevailed brought famine while every moral and legal tie was loosened he had restored order this had been a work which required perseverance patience and energy and he had neither slept nor waked but for the good of his country would they dare wrong him thus would they dare wrong him thus would they they rest his hard-earned reward for him to bestow it on one who never having mingled in public life would come a tyro to the craft in which he was an adept he demanded the place of deputy as his right riland had shown it he preferred him never before had he who was born even to the inheritance of the throne of england never had he asked favour or honour from those now his equals but who might have been his subjects would they refuse him could they thrust back from the path of distinction and laudable ambition the air of their ancient kings and heap another disappointment on a fallen house no one had ever before heard adrian allude to the rights of his ancestors none had ever before suspected that power or the suffrage of the many could in any manner become dear to him he had begun his speech with vehemence he ended with unassuming gentleness making his appeal with the same humility as if he had asked to be the first in wealth honour and power among englishmen and not as was the truth to be the foremost in the ranks of loathsome toils and inevitable death a murmur of approbation rose after his speech oh do not listen to him i cried he speaks false false to himself i was interrupted and silence being restored we were ordered as was the custom to retire during the decision of the house i fancied that they hesitated and that there was some hope for me i was mistaken hardly had we quitted the chamber before adrian was recalled and installed in his office of lord deputy to the protector we returned together to the palace why lionel said adrian what did you intend you could not hope to conquer and yet you gave me the pain of a triumph over my dearest friend. This is mockery, I replied. You devote yourself, you, the adored brother of Idris, the being of all the world contains dearest to our hearts. You devote yourself to an early

Starting point is 10:03:27 death. I would have prevented this. My death would be a small evil, or rather I should not die, while you cannot hope to escape. As to the likelihood of escaping, said Adrian, ten years hence the cold stars may shine on the graves of all of us, but as to my peculiar liability to infection, I can easily prove both logically and physically that in the midst of contagion I have a better chance of life than you. This is my post. I was born for this, to rule England in anarchy, to save her in danger, to devote myself for her. The blood of my forefathers cries aloud in my veins, and bids me be first among my countrymen, or if this mode of speech offend you, let me say that my proud queen instilled early into me a love of distinction, and all that, if the weakness of

Starting point is 10:04:06 my physical nature and my peculiar opinions had not prevented such a design, might have made me long since struggle for the lost inheritance of my race. But now my mother, or, if you will, my mother's lessons awaken within me. I cannot lead on to battle. I cannot, through intrigue and faithlessness, rear again the throne upon the wreck of English public spirit, but I can be the first to support and guard my country, now that terrific disasters and ruin have laid strong hands upon her. That country and my beloved sister are all I have. I will protect the first, the latter I commit to your charge. If I survive and she be lost, I were far better dead. Preserve her, for her own sake i know that you will if you require any other spur think that in preserving her you preserve me her faultless nature one sum of perfections is wrapped up in her affections if they were hurt she would droop like an unwatered flaret and the slightest injury they receive is a nipping frost to her

Starting point is 10:04:53 already she fears for us she fears for the children she adores and for you the father of these her lover husband protect her and you must be near her to support and encourage her return to windsor then my brother for such you are by every tie fill the double place my absence imposes on you and let me in all my sufferings here, turn my eyes towards that dear seclusion and say, there is peace. End of chapter six. Volume 2, Chapter 7 of The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Madera.

Starting point is 10:05:57 The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Volume 2, Chapter 7. I did proceed to Windsor, but not with the intention of remaining there. I went, but to obtain the consent of Idris, and then to return and take my station beside my unequered friend, to share his labours and save him, if so it must be, at the expense of my life. Yet I dreaded to witness the anguish which my resolve might excite in Idris. I had vowed to my own heart, never to shadow her countenance, even. in with transient grief, and should I prove requient at the hour of greatest need?

Starting point is 10:06:41 I had begun my journey with anxious haste. Now I desired to draw it out through the course of days and months. I longed to avoid the necessity of action. I strove to escape from thought vainly. Futurity like a dark image in a phantasmagoria came nearer and more near, till it clasped the whole earth in its shadow. A slight circumstance induced me to alter my usual route And to return home by Eagam and Bishopgate I alighted at Perdita's ancient abode her cottage And sending forward the carriage determined to walk across the park to the castle

Starting point is 10:07:21 This spot dedicated to sweetest recollections The deserted house and neglected garden were well adapted to nurse my melancholy In our happiest days Perdita had adorned her cottage with every aid art might bring, to that which nature had selected to favor. In the same spirit of exaggeration she had, on the event of her separation from Raymond, caused it to be entirely neglected. It was now in ruin. The deer had claimed the broken palings, and reposed among the flowers. Grass grew on the threshold, and the swinging lattice creaking to the wind gave signal of,

Starting point is 10:08:02 of utter desertion. The sky was blue above, and the air impregnated with fragrance by the rare flowers that grew among the weeds. The trees moved overhead, awakening nature's favorite melody. But the melancholy appearance of the choked pads,

Starting point is 10:08:20 and weed-grown flower beds dimmed even this gay summer scene. The time when in proud and happy security we assembled at this cottage was gone. Soon the present. and hours were joined those past, and shadows of future ones rose dark and menacing from the womb of time, their cradle and their beer. For the first time in my life, I envied the sleep of the dead, and thought with pleasure of one's bed under the sod where grief and fear have no

Starting point is 10:08:53 power. I passed through the gap of the broken paling. I felt while I disdained the choking tears. I rushed into the depths of the forest. Oh, death and change, rulers of our life, where are ye that I may grapple with you? What was there in our tranquility that excited your envy, in our happiness that ye should destroy it? We were happy, loving and beloved. The horn of Amalthea contained no blessing unshowered upon us, but alas.

Starting point is 10:09:27 La Fortuna, Deiidad Barbara, importuna, Oye, cadaver, and ayer flor, no permanece, hamas. As I wandered on thus ruminating, a number of country people passed me. They seemed full of careful thought, and a few words of their conversation that reached me, induced me to approach at bank further inquiries. A party of people flying from London, as was frequent in those days, had come up the Thames in a boat. No one at Windsor would afford them shelter, so, going a little further up, they remained

Starting point is 10:10:06 all night in a deserted hut near Bolter's lock. They pursued their way the following morning, leaving one of their company behind them sick of the plague. This circumstance once spread abroad, none dared approach within half a mile of the infected neighborhood, and the deserted wretch was left to fight with disease and death in solitude as he best might. I was urged why, to hasten to the hut for the purpose of ascertaining his situation and administering to his wants. As I advanced, I met knots of country people talking earnestly of this event. Distant as they were from the apprehended contagion, fear was impressed on every countenance. I passed by a group of these terrorists in a lane in the direct road to the hut.

Starting point is 10:10:53 One of them stopped me, and, conjecturing that I was ignorant of the circumstance, told me not to go on, for that an infected person but a short distance. I know it, I replied, and I'm going to see in what condition the poor fellow is. A murmur of surprise and horror ran through the assembly. I continued, this poor wretch is deserted, dying, succorless. In these unhappy times,

Starting point is 10:11:17 God knows how soon any or all of us may be in like want. I am going to do as I would be done by. But you'll never be able to return to the castle. Lady Itress has children. In confused speech were the words that struck my ear. Do you not know my friends, I said, that the Earl himself, now Lord Protector, visits daily, not only those probably infected by this disease, but the hospitals in pest houses, going near and even touching the sick. Yet he was never in better health. You labour under an entire mistake as to the nature of the plague. But do not fear, I do not ask any of you to accompany me, nor to believe me until I return safe and sound.

Starting point is 10:11:59 from my patient. So I left them and hurried on. I soon arrived at the hut. The door was ajar. I entered, and one glance assured me that its former inhabitant was no more. He lay on a heap of straw, cold and stiff, while a pernicious effluvia filled the room, and various stains and marks served to shew the virulence of the disorder. I had never before beheld one killed by pestilence. While every mind was full of dismay at its effects, a craving for excitement had led us to pursue Defoe's account and the masterly delineations of the author of Arthur Mervyn.

Starting point is 10:12:43 The pictures drawn in these books were so vivid that we seemed to have experienced the results depicted by them, but cold were the sensations excited by words, burning though they were and describing the death and misery of thousands compared to what I felt in looking on the course of this unhappy stranger. This indeed was the plague. I raised his rigid limbs. I marked the distortion of his face,

Starting point is 10:13:11 and the stony eyes lost to perception. As I was thus occupied, chill horror congealed my blood, making my flesh quiver and my hair to stand on end. Half insanely I spoke to the day, dead. So the plague killed you, I muttered. How came this? Was the coming painful? You look as if the enemy had tortured before he murdered you. And now I leapt up precipitately and escaped from the hut before nature could revoke her laws and inorganic words be breathed in answer from the lips of the

Starting point is 10:13:46 departed. On returning through the lane I saw at a distance the same assemblage of persons which I had left. They hurried away as soon as they saw me. My adolphin, agitated men added to their fear of coming near one who had entered within the verge of contagion. At a distance from facts one draws conclusions which appear infallible, which yet, when put to the test of reality, vanish like unreal dreams. I had ridiculed the fears of my countrymen when they related to others. Now that they came home to myself, I paused. The rubicon I felt was passed, and it behoved me well to reflect.

Starting point is 10:14:26 what I should do on this hither side of disease and danger. According to the vulgar superstition, my dress, my person, the air I breathed, bore in it mortal danger to myself and others. Should I return to the castle, to my wife and children, with this taint upon me? Not surely if I were infected, but I felt certain that I was not. A few hours would determine the question, I would spend these in the forest, in reflection on what was to come and what my future actions were to be. in the feeling communicated to me by the sight of one struck by the plague i forgot the events that had excited me so strongly in london new and more painful prospects by degrees were cleared of the mist which had hitherto veiled them

Starting point is 10:15:11 the question was no longer whether i should share adrian's toils in danger but in what manner i could in windsor and the neighbourhood imitate the prudence and zeal which under his government produced order and plenty in london and how now pestion had spread more widely, I could secure the health of my own family. I spread the whole earth out as a map before me. On no one spot of its surface could I put my finger and say, here is safety. In the south, the disease, virulent and immedicable, had nearly annihilated the race of man. Storm and inundation, poisonous winds and blights filled the measure of suffering. In the north it was worse. The lesser population gradually declined, and famine and plague kept watch on the survivors who helpless and feeble were ready to fall an easy prey into their hands. I contracted my view to England. The overgrown metropolis, the great heart of mighty Britain,

Starting point is 10:16:09 was pulseless. Carmus had ceased. All resort for ambition or pleasure was cut off. The streets were grass-grown, the houses empty. The few that from necessity remained seemed already branded with the taint of inevitable pestilence. In the low, the world. In the low, larger manufacturing towns the same tragedy was acted on a smaller yet more disastrous scale. There was no Adrian to superintend and direct, while whole flocks of the poor were struck and killed. Yet we were not all to die. No, truly, though thinned, the race of man would continue, and the great plague would in after years become matter of history and wonder. doubtless this visitation was for extent unexampled, more need that we should work hard to dispute its progress.

Starting point is 10:17:02 Ere this men have gone out in sport and slain their thousands and tens of thousands, but now man had become a creature of price. The life of one of them was more worth than the so-called treasures of kings. Look at his thought, endued countenance, his graceful limbs, his majestic brow, his wondrous mechews, The type and model of this best work of God is not to be cast aside as a broken vessel. He shall be preserved in his children, and his children's children carry down the name and form of man to latest time. Above all, I must guard those entrusted by nature and fate to my especial care. And surely, if among all my fellow creatures I were to select those who might stand forth examples of the greatness and goodness of man,

Starting point is 10:17:50 I could choose no other than those allied to me by the most sacred ties. Some from among the family of man must survive, and these should be among the survivors. That should be my task to accomplish it my own life for a small sacrifice. There then in that castle, in Windsor Castle, birthplace of Idris in my babes, should be the haven and retreat for the racked bark of human society. Its forests should be our world,

Starting point is 10:18:19 its garden afford us food. Within its walls I would establish the shaken throne of health. I was an outcast and a vagabond when Adrian gently threw over me the silver net of love and civilization, and linked me inextricably to human charities and human excellence. I was one who, though an aspirant after good and an ardent lover of wisdom, was yet unenrolled in any list of worth when Idris, the princely born, who was herself the personification of all that was divine in woman. She who walked to the earth like a poet's dream,

Starting point is 10:18:57 as a carved goddess endued with sense, or pictured saints stepping from the canvas, she the most worthy chose me and gave me herself a priceless gift. During several hours I continued thus to meditate, till hunger and fatigue brought me back to the passing hour, then marked by long shadows cast from the descending sun. I had wandered toward Bracknell, far to the west of Windsor. The feeling of perfect health which I enjoyed assured me that I was free from contagion.

Starting point is 10:19:32 I remembered that Idris had been kept in ignorance of my proceedings. She might have heard of my return from London in my visit to Bolter's Lock, which, connected with my continued absence, might tend greatly to alarm her. I returned to Windsor by the long walk, and passing through the town toward the castle I founded in a state of agitation and disturbance. It is too late to be ambitious, says Sir Thomas Brown. We cannot hope to live so long in our names as some have done in their persons. One face of Janus holds no proportion to the other.

Starting point is 10:20:04 Upon this text, many fanatics arose who prophesied that the end of time was come. The spirit of superstition had birth from the wreck of our hopes, and antics wild and dangerous were played on the great theatre, while the remaining particle of futurity dwindled into a point in the eyes of the prognosticators. Weak-spirited women died of fear as they listened to their denunciations. Men of robust form and seeming strength fell into idiocy and madness, racked by the dread of coming eternity. A man of this kind was now pouring forth his eloquent despair among the inhabitants of winter,

Starting point is 10:20:44 the scene of the morning in my visit to the dead which had been spread abroad had alarmed the country people so they had become fit instruments to be played upon by a maniac the poor wretch had lost his young wife and lovely infant by the plague he was a mechanic and rendered unable to attend to the occupation which supplied his necessities famine was added to his other miseries he left the chamber which contained his wife and child wife and child wife and child no more but dead earth upon the earth, wild with hunger, watching and grief. His diseased fancy made him believe himself sent by heaven to preach the end of time to the world. He entered the churches and foretoed to the congregations their speedy removal to the vaults below. He appeared like the forgotten spirit of the time in the theatres, and bade the spectators go home and die. He had been seized and confined. He had escaped and wandered from London among the neighboring town, and with frantic gestures and thrilling words he unveiled to each their hidden fears and gave voice to the soundless thought they dared not syllable.

Starting point is 10:21:53 He stood under the arcade of the town hall of Windsor and from this elevation harangued a trembling crowd. Here, O ye inhabitants of the earth, he cried. Hear thou all seeing but most pitiless heaven. Hear thou too, O tempest tossed hard, which breathes out these words yet feints beneath their meaning. Death is among us. The earth is beautiful and flower bedecked, but she is our grave. The clouds of heaven weep for us. The pageantry of the stars is but our funeral torchlight. Grey-headed men, you hoped for yet a few years in your long. known abode but the lease is up. You must remove. Children, you will never reach maturity.

Starting point is 10:22:49 Even now the small grave is dug for you. Mothers clasped them in your arms. One death embraces you. Shuddering, he stretched out his hands. His eyes cast up seemed bursting from their sockets while he appeared to follow shapes to us invisible in the yielding air. There they are! He cried. They're dead! They rise in their shrouds and pass in silent procession towards the far end of their doom. Their bloodless lips move not.

Starting point is 10:23:26 Their shadowy limbs avoid emotion while still they glide onwards. We come! He exclaimed, springing forwards. For what should we wait? Haste, my friends, apparel yourselves in the court dress of death. Pestilins will usher you to his absence. Why thus long, they, the good, the wise and the beloved are gone before. Mothers kiss you last.

Starting point is 10:23:55 Husbands protect us no more lead on the partners of your death. Come, oh, come while the dear ones are yet in sight. for soon they will pass away, and we never, never shall join them more. From such ravings as these he would suddenly become collected, and with unexaggerated but terrific words, paint the horrors of the time, describe with minute detail the effects of the plague on the human frame,

Starting point is 10:24:26 and tell heartbreaking tales of the snapping of dear affinities, the gasping horror of despair over the deathbed of the last beloved, so that groans and even sure, shrieks burst from the crowd. One man in particular stood in front, his eyes fixed on the prophet, his mouth open, his limbs rigid, while his face changed to various colors, yellow, blue and green, through intense fear.

Starting point is 10:24:50 The maniac caught his glance and turned his eye on him. One has heard of the gaze of the rattlesnake which allures the trembling victim till he falls within his jaws. The maniac became composed. His person rose higher, authority being, from his countenance. He looked on the peasant who began to tremble

Starting point is 10:25:09 while he still gazed. His knees knocked together. His teeth chattered. He at last fell down in convulsions. That man has the plague, said the maniac calmly. A shriek burst

Starting point is 10:25:24 from the lips of the poor wretch, and then sudden motionlessness came over him. It was manifest to all that he was dead. Cries of horror filled the poor. place, every one endeavored to affect his escape. In a few minutes the marketplace was clear,

Starting point is 10:25:41 the corpse lay on the ground, and the maniac subdued and exhausted sat beside it, leaning his gaunt cheek upon his thin hand. Soon some people, deputed by the magistrates, came to remove the body. The unfortunate being saw a jailer in each. He fled precipitately while I passed onwards to the castle. death cruel and relentless had entered these beloved walls an old servant who nursed indris in infancy and who lived with us more on the footing of a revered relative than a domestic had gone a few days before to visit a daughter married and settled in the neighbourhood of london on the night of her return she sickened of the plague from the haughty and unbending nature of the countess of windsor indress had few tender fainter filial associations with her. This good woman had stood in the place of a mother, and her very deficiencies of education and knowledge by rendering her humble and defenseless endeared her to

Starting point is 10:26:48 us. She was the especial favorite of the children. I found my poor girl. There is no exaggeration in the expression, wild with grief and dread. She hung over the patient in agony, which was not mitigated when her thoughts wandered toward her babes for whom she feared infection. My arrival was like the newly discovered lamp of a lighthouse to sailors who are withering some dangerous point. She deposited her appalling doubts in my hands. She relied on my judgment and was comforted by my participation in her sorrow. Soon our poor nurse expired, and the anguish of suspense was changed to deep regret, which, though at first more painful, yet yielded with grief.

Starting point is 10:27:33 greater readiness to my consolations. Sleep, the sovereign bomb, at length steeped her tearful eyes and forgetfulness. She slept, and quiet prevailed in the castle, whose habitants were hushed to repose. I was awake, and during the long hours of dead night, my busy thoughts worked in my brain like ten thousand mill wheels, rapid, acute, untameable. all slept, all England slept, and from my window, commanding a wide prospect of the star-illummed country, I saw the land stretched out in placid rest. I was awake, alive, while the brother of death possessed my race.

Starting point is 10:28:19 What if the more potent of these fraternal deities should obtain dominion over it? The silence of midnight, to speak truly, though apparently a paradox, rung in my ears. The solitude became intolerable. I placed my hand on the beating heart of Itrice. I bent my head to catch the sound of her breath, to assure myself that she still existed. For a moment I doubted whether I should not wake her. So effeminate and horror ran through my frame.

Starting point is 10:28:52 Great God, would it one day be thus? One day all extinct, save myself. Should I walk the earth? alone? Were these warning voices whose inarticulate and oracular sense forced belief upon me? Yet I would not call them voices of warning that announced to us only the inevitable. As the sun, ere it is risen, sometimes paints its image in the atmosphere. So often do the spirits of great events stride on before the events, and in today, already walks tomorrow.

Starting point is 10:29:32 End of chapter 7. Volume 2, Chapter 8 of The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All LibraVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visitlibrovox.org. Recording by Madeira. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Volume 2.

Starting point is 10:30:08 Chapter 8 After a long interval I am again impelled by the restless spirit within me to continue my narration, but I must alter the mode which I have hitherto adopted. The details contained in the foregoing pages apparently trivial, yet each slightest one weighing like lead in the depressed scale of human afflictions. This tedious dwelling on the sorrows of others, while my own woe in apprehension, this slowly laying bare, of my soul's wounds, this journal of death, this long-drawn and torturous path leading to the

Starting point is 10:30:46 ocean of countless tears, awakens me again to keen grief. I had used this history as an opiate. While it described my beloved friends fresh with life and glowing with hope, active assistance on the scene, I was soothed. There will be a more melancholy pleasure in painting the end of all. But the intermediate steps, the climbing, the wall, raised up between what was and his, while I still looked back, nor saw the concealed desert beyond, as the labour past my strength. Time and experience have placed me on a height from which I can comprehend the past as a whole, and in this way I must describe it, bringing forward the leading incidents and disposing light in shade so as to form a picture, in whose very darkness there will be harmony.

Starting point is 10:31:35 It would be needless to narrate those disastrous occurrences For which a parallel might be found In any slighter visitation of our gigantic calamity Does the reader wish to hear of the pest-houses Where death is the comforter Of the mournful passage of the death card Of the insensibility of the worthless And the anguish of the loving heart

Starting point is 10:31:56 Of harrowing, shrieks and silenced dire Of the variety of disease, desertion, famine, despair and death There are many books which can feed the appetite craving for these things. Let them turn to the accounts of Boccaccio Defoe and Brown. The vast annihilation that has swallowed all things, the voiceless solitude of the once busy earth, the lonely state of singleness which hemms me in, has deprived even such details of their stinging reality,

Starting point is 10:32:28 and mellowing the lurid tints of past anguish with poetic hues, I am able to escape from the mosaic of circumstance. by perceiving and reflecting back the grouping and combined colouring of the past. I had returned from London, possessed by the idea, with the intimate feeling that it was my first duty to secure, as well as I was able, the well-being of my family, and then to return and take my post beside Adrian. The events that immediately followed on my arrival at Windsor changed this few of things. The plague was not in London alone.

Starting point is 10:33:03 It was everywhere. It came on us, as Ryland had said, like a thousand packs of wolves howling through the winter night, gaunt and fierce. When once disease was introduced into the rural districts, its effects appeared more horrible, more exigent, and more difficult to cure than in towns. There was a companionship in suffering there, and the neighbours, keeping constant watch on each other, and inspired by the act of benevolence of Hadrian, Succo was afforded, and the path of destruction smoothed, but in the country, among the scattered farmhouses, in lone cottages, in fields and barns, tragedies were acted, harrowing to the soul, unseen, unheard, unnoticed. Medical aid was less easily procured. Food was more difficult to obtain in human beings, unwithheld by shame, for they were unbeheld of their fellows, ventured on deeds of

Starting point is 10:34:00 greater wickedness, or gave way more readily to their abject fears. Deeds of heroism also occurred, whose very mention swells the heart and brings tears into the eyes, such as human nature, that beauty and deformity are often closely linked. In reading history we are chiefly struck by the generosity and self-devotion that follow close on the heels of crime, veiling with superno flowers the state of blood. Such acts were not wanting to adore the grim train that waited on the progress of the plague. The inhabitants of Berkshire and Bucks had been long aware that the plague was in London, in Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, York, in short, in all the more populous towns of England.

Starting point is 10:34:45 They were not, however, the less astonished and dismayed when it appeared among themselves. They were impatient and angry in the midst of terror. They would do something to throw off the clinging evil, and, while in action they fancy that a remedy was applied. the inhabitants of the smaller towns left their houses pitched tents in the fields wandering separate from each other careless of hunger or the skies inclemency while they imagined that they avoided the death-dealing disease the farmers and cottagers on the contrary struck with the fear of solitude and madly desirous of medical assistance flocked into the towns but winter was coming and with winter hope in august the plague had appeared in the country of england and during september it made its ravages towards the end of october it dwindled away and was in some degree replaced by a typhus of hardly less virulence the autumn was warm and rainy the infirm and sickly died off happier they many young people flushed with health and prosperity made pale by wasting malady became the inhabitants of the grave the crop had failed the bad corn in want of foreign wines added vigour to disease before christmas half england was under water the storms of the last winter were renewed but the diminished shipping of this year caused us to feel less the tempests of the sea the flood and storms did more harm to continental europe than to us giving as it were the last blow to the calamities which destroyed it

Starting point is 10:36:15 in italy the rivers were unwatched by the diminished peasantry and like wild beasts from their lair when the hunters and dogs over far did tiber arno and po rush upon and destroy the fertility of the plains whole villages were carried away rome and florence and pisa were overflowed in their marble palaces late mirrored in tranquil streams had their foundations shaken by their winter gifted power in germany and russia the injury was still more momentous but frost would come at last and with it a renewal of our lease of earth frost would blunt the arrows of pestilence and enchain the furious elements and the land would in spring throw off her garment of snow released from her menace of destruction it was not until february that the desired signs of winter appeared for three days the snow fell ice stopped the current of the rivers and the birds flew out from crackling branches of the frost whitened trees on the fourth morning all venice A southwest wind brought up rain. The sun came out, and marking the usual laws of nature seemed even at this early season to burn with solicitial force. It was no consolation that with the first winds of March the lanes were filled with violets, the fruit trees covered with blossoms, that the corn sprung up and the leaves came out forced by the unseasonable heat. We feared the balmy air. We feared the cloudless sky, the flower-covered earth and delightful woods, for we looked on the fabric of the season. the universe no longer as our dwelling but our tomb, and the fragrant land smelled the apprehension

Starting point is 10:37:50 of fear like a wide churchyard. Pissando la tierra duer d'enuo, the hombre estaricado pass that dae sobri suhurtura. Yet notwithstanding these disadvantages, winter was breathing time, and we exerted ourselves to make the best of it. Plague might not revive with the summer, but if it did, it should find us prepared. It is a part of man's nature to adapt itself through habit even to pain and sorrow. Pestilins had become a part of our future, our existence. It was to be guarded against like the flooding of rivers, the encroachments of ocean, or the inclemency of the sky. After long-suffering and bitter experience, some panacea might be discovered, as it was all that

Starting point is 10:38:34 receive infection died. All, however, were not infected, and it became our part to fix deep the foundations and raise high the barrier between contagion and the same. To introduce such order as would conduce to the well-being of the survivors, and as would preserve hope in some portion of happiness to those who were spectators of the still-renewed tragedy, Adrian had introduced systematic modes of proceeding in the metropolis, which, while they were unable to stop the progress of death, yet prevented other evils, vice and folly, from rendering the awful fate of the hour still more tremendous.

Starting point is 10:39:09 I wish to imitate his example, but meant that. are used to move altogether if they move at all, and I could find no means of leading the inhabitants of scattered towns and villages, who forgot my words as soon as they heard them not, and veered with every baffling wind that might arise from an apparent change of circumstance. I adopted another plan. Those rioters who have imagined a reign of peace and happiness on earth have generally described a rural country, where each small township was directed by the elders and wise men. This was the key of my design. Each village, however small, usually contains a leader, one among themselves whom they venerate,

Starting point is 10:39:48 whose advice they seek in difficulty, and whose good opinion they chiefly value. I was immediately drawn to make this observation by occurrences that presented themselves to my personal experience. In the village of Little Marlowe, an old woman ruled the community. She had lived for some years in an almshouse, and on fine Sundays, her threshold was constantly beset by a crowd, seeking her advice and listening to her admonitions. She had been a soldier's wife, and had seen the world. Infirmity, induced by fevers caught in unwholesome quarters, had come on her before its time, and she seldom moved from her little cot.

Starting point is 10:40:29 The plague entered the village, and while fright and grief deprived the inhabitants of the little wisdom they possessed, old Martha stepped forward and said before now I've been in a town where there was the plague and you escaped no but I recovered after this Martha was seated more firmly than ever on the regal seat elevated by reverence and love she entered the cottages of the sick she relieved their wants with her own hand she betrayed no fear and inspired all who saw her with some portion of her own native courage she She attended the markets. She insisted upon being supplied with food for those who were too poor to purchase it. She shewed them how the well-being of each included the prosperity of all. She would not permit the gardens to be neglected, nor the very flowers in the cottage lattices to droop from want of care. Hope, she said, was better than a doctor's prescription,

Starting point is 10:41:24 and everything that could sustain and enliven the spirits of more worth than drugs and mixtures. It was the sight of Little Marlowe and my conversations with Martha, that led me to the plan I formed. I had before visited the manor houses and gentlemen's seats, and often found the inhabitants actuated by the purest benevolence, ready to lend their utmost aid for the welfare of their tenants. But this was not enough. The intimate sympathy generated by similar hopes and fears,

Starting point is 10:41:54 similar experience and pursuits was wanting here. The poor perceived that the rich possessed other means of preservation than those which could be partaken of by themselves, seclusion, and as far as circumstances permitted, freedom from care. They could not place reliance on them, but turned with tenfold dependence to the succour and advice of their equals. I resolved, therefore, to go from village to village, seeking out the rustic archon of the place, and by systematizing their exertions, and enlightening their views, increase both their power and their use among their fellow cottagers. Many changes also now occurred in these spontaneous regal elections.

Starting point is 10:42:31 depositions and abdications were frequent while in the place of the old and prudent the ardent youth would step forward eager for action regardless of danger often too the voice to which all listened was suddenly silenced the helping hand cold the sympathetic eye closed and the villagers feared still more the death that had selected a choice victim shivering in dust the heart that had beat for them reducing to incommunicable annihilation the mind for ever occupied with projects for their welfare whoever labours for man must often find ingratitude watered by vice and folly spring from the grain which he has sown death which had in our younger days walk the earth like a thief that comes in the night now rising from his subterranean vault girt with power with dark banner floating came a conqueror many saw seated above his vice regal throne a supreme providence who directed his shafts and guided his progress and they bowed their heads in resignation or at least in obedience others perceived only a passing casualty they endeavored to exchange terror for heedlessness and plunged into licentiousness to avoid the agonizing throes of worst apprehension thus while the wise the good and the prudent were occupied by the labors of benevolence the truce of winter produced other effects among the young the thoughtless and the vicious. During the colder months, there was a general rush to London in search of amusement. The ties of public opinion were loosened. Many were rich, heretofore, poor. Many had lost father and mother, the guardians of their morals, their mentors, and restraints.

Starting point is 10:44:10 It would have been useless to have opposed these impulses by barriers, which it would only have driven those actuated by them to more pernicious indulgencies. The theatres were open and thronged, dance and midnight festival were frequented. and many of these decorum was violated, and the evils which hitherto adhered to an advanced state of civilization were doubled. The student left his books. The artist is study. The occupations of life were gone. But the amusements remained.

Starting point is 10:44:37 Enjoyment might be protracted to the verge of the grave. All factitious coloring disappeared. Death rose like night, and protected by its murky shadows, the blush of modesty, the reserve of pride. The decorum of prudery were frequently thrown aside as useless fails. this was not universal among better nature's anguish and dread the fear of eternal separation and the awful wonder produced by unprecedented calamity drew closer the ties of kindred and friendship philosophers opposed their principles as barriers to the inundation of propligacy or despair and the only ramparts to protect the invaded territory of human life the religious hoping now for their reward clung fast to their creeds as the rafts and planks which over the tempest vexed sea of suffering would bear them in safety to the harbor of the unknown continent. The loving heart obliged to contract its view,

Starting point is 10:45:30 bestowed its overflow of affection in triple portion on the few that remained. Yet even among these, the present, as an unalienable possession, became all of time to which they dared commit the precious freight of their hopes. The experience of immemorial time had taught us formerly to count our enjoyments by years and extend our prospect of life through a lengthened period of progression and decay. The long road threaded a vast labyrinth and the valley of the shadow of death in which it terminated was hid by intervening objects, but an earthquake had changed the scene. Under our very feet the earth yawned deep and precipitous the gulf below opened to receive

Starting point is 10:46:12 us, while the hours charioted us toward the chasm. But it was winter now, and months must elapse before we are hurled from our security. we became ephemera to whom the interval between the rising and setting sun was as a long-drawn year of common time we should never see our children ripen into maturity nor behold their downy cheeks roughened their blithe hearts subdued by passion or care but we had them now they lived and we lived what more could we desire with such schooling did my poor itris try to hush thronging fears and in some measure succeeded It was not as in summertime when each hour might bring the dreaded fate. Until summer we felt sure, and this certainty, short-lived as it must be, yet for a while satisfied her maternal tenderness. I know not how to express or communicate the sense of concentrated,

Starting point is 10:47:09 intense, though evanescent transport, that imperiled us in the present hour. Our joys were dearer because we saw their end. They were keener because we felt to its fullest extent, their value. They were purer because their essence was sympathy. As a meteor is brighter than a star, did the felicity of this winter contain in itself the extracted delights of a long, long life. How lovely is spring! As we looked from Windsor Terrace on the sixteen fertile county spread beneath, speckled by happy cottages and wealthier towns, all looked as in former years, heart-cheering and The land was ploughed, the slender blades of wheat broke through the dark soil, the fruit trees were covered with buds, the husbandman was abroad in the fields, the milkmaid tripped home with well-filled pails, the swallows and martin struck the sunny pools with their long-pointed wings.

Starting point is 10:48:08 The new-dropped lambs reposed on the young grass. The tender growth of leaves lifts its sweet head into the air and feeds a silent space with ever-sprouting green. Man himself seemed to regenerate, and feel the frost of winter yield to an elastic and warm renewal of life. Reason told us that care and sorrow would grow the opening year, but how to believe that ominous voice breathed up with festiferous vapours from fears dim cavern while nature, laughing and scattering from her green-lap flowers, and fruits and sparkling waters invited us to join the gay mask of young life she led upon the scene. Where was the play? Here, everywhere, one voice of horror and dismay exclaimed, when in the pleasant days of a sunny May, the destroyer of man brooded again over the earth, forcing the spirit to leave its

Starting point is 10:49:00 organic chrysalis, and to enter upon an untried life, with one mighty sweep of its potent weapon, all caution, all care, all prudence were leveled low. Death sat at the tables of the great, stretched itself on the cottager's palate, seized the dastard who fled, quelled the brave man who resisted. Despondency entered every heart, sorrow dimmed every eye. Sites of woe now became familiar to me, and were I to tell all of anguish and pain that I witnessed, of the despairing moans of age,

Starting point is 10:49:36 and the more terrible smiles of infancy in the bosom of horror, my reader, his limbs quivering and his hair on end, would wonder how I did not, seized with such aught. and frenzy dash myself from some precipice, and so close my eyes forever on the sad end of the world. But the powers of love, poetry, and creative fancy will dwell even beside the sick of the plague, with the squalid and with the dying. A feeling of devotion, of duty, of a high and steady purpose elevated me. A strange joy filled my heart. In the midst of saddest grief I seemed to tread air, while the spirit of good shed round me in ambrosial atmosphere, which blunted the sting of

Starting point is 10:50:19 sympathy and purified the air of sighs. If my wearied soul flagged in its career, I thought of my love at home, of the casket that contained my treasures, of the kiss of love and the filial caress, while my eyes were moistened by purest dew, and my heart was at once softened and refreshed by thrilling tenderness. Maternal affection had not rendered Idris selfish. At the beginning of our calamities she had, with thoughtless enthusiasm, devoted herself to the care of the sick and helpless. I checked her, and she submitted to my rule.

Starting point is 10:50:56 I told her how the fear of her danger palsied my exertions, how the knowledge of her safety strung my nerves to endurance. I shewed her the dangers which her children incurred during her absence, and she at length agreed not to go beyond the enclosure of the forest. indeed within the walls of the castle we had a colony of the unhappy deserted by their relatives and in themselves helpless sufficient to occupy her time and attention while ceaseless anxiety for my welfare and the health of her children however she strove to curb a concealment absorbed all her thoughts and undermined the vital principle after watching over and providing for their safety her second care was to hide from me her anguish and tears each night i returned to the castle and found their repose in love awaiting me often i waited beside the bed of death till midnight and through the obscurity of rainy cloudy nights rode many miles sustained by one circumstance only the safety and sheltered repose of those i loved if some scene of tremendous agony shook my frame and feel fevered my brow, I would lay my head on the lap of Idris, and the tumultuous pulses subsided into

Starting point is 10:52:06 a temperate flow. Her smile could raise me from hopelessness. Her embrace bathed my sorrowing heart in calm peace. Summer advanced, and crowned with the sun's potent rays, plague shot her unerring shafts over the earth. The nations beneath their influence bowed their heads and died. The corn that sprung up in plenty, lay in autumn rotting on the ground, while the melancholy wretch who had gone out to gather bread for his children lay stiff and plague-struck in the furrow. The green woods waved their boughs majestically, while the dying was spread beneath their shade, answering the solemn melody with inharmonious cries. The painted birds flitted through the shades. The careless deer reposed unhurt upon the fern. The oxen and the horses strayed from their armen. The arson and the horses strayed from

Starting point is 10:52:58 their unguarded stables and grazed among the wheat, for death fell on man alone. With summer and mortality grew our fears. My poor love and I looked at each other and our babes. We will save the midriss, I said. I will save them. Yes, hence we shall regount to them our fears, then passed away with their occasion, though they only should remain on the earth, still they shall live, nor shall their cheeks become pale, nor their sweet voices languish. our eldest in some degree understood the scenes passing around and at times he with serious looks questioned me concerning the reason of so vast a desolation but he was only ten years old and the hilarity of youth soon chased unreasonable care from his brow evelyn a laughing cherub agamsome infant without idea of pain or sorrow would shaking back his light curls from his eyes make the halls re-echo with his merriment and in a thousand artless ways attract our attention to his play clara our lovely gentle clara was our stay our solace our delight she made it her task to attend the sick comfort the sorrowing assist the aged and partake the sports and awaken the gaiety of the young

Starting point is 10:54:11 she flitted through the rooms like a good spirit dispatched from the celestial kingdom to illumine our dark hour with alien splendour gratitude in praise marked where her footsteps had been yet when she stood in unassuming simplicity before us playing with our children or with girlish assiduity performing little kind offices for idris one wondered in what fair lineament of her pure loveliness in what soft tone of her thrilling voice so much of heroism sagacity and active goodness recited the summer passed tediously for we trusted that winter would at least check the disease that it would vanish altogether was a hope too dear too heartfelt to be expressed when such a thought was heedlessly uttered the heroes with a gush of tears and passionate sobs bore witness how deep their fears were how small their hopes for my own part my exertions for the public good permitted me to observe more closely than most others the virulence and extensive ravages of our sightless enemy a short point of my own part my exertions for the public good permitted me to observe more closely than most others the virulence and extensive ravages of our sightless enemy a short point month had destroyed a village. And where in May the first person sickened, in June, the paths were deformed by unburied corpses, the houses tenetless, no smoke arising from the chimneys, and the housewife's clock marked only the hour when death had been triumphant. From such scenes I have sometimes saved a deserted infant, sometimes let a young and grieving mother from the

Starting point is 10:55:34 lifeless image of her firstborn, or drawn the sturdy labourer from childish weeping over his extinct family. July is gone, August must pass, and by the middle of September we may hope. Each day was eagerly counted, and the inhabitants of towns, desirous to leap this dangerous interval, plunged into dissipation and strove by riot and what they wished to imagine to be pleasure to banish thought in opiate despair. None but Adrian could have tamed the motley population of London, which, like a troop of unbitted steeds rushed to their pastures, had thrown aside all minor fears through the operation of the fear paramount. Even Adrian was obliged in part to yield that he might be able, if not to guide,

Starting point is 10:56:19 at least to set bounds on the license of the times. The theatres were kept open. Every place a public resort was frequented, though he endeavored so to modify them as might best quiet the agitation of the spectators and at the same time prevent a reaction of misery when the excitement was over. Tragedy deep and dire were the chief favorites. comedy brought with it too great a contrast to the inner despair. When such were attempted, it was not unfrequent for a comedian,

Starting point is 10:56:45 in the midst of the laughter occasioned by his disproportioned buffoonery, to find a word or thought in his part that jarred with his own sense of wretchedness and burst from mimic merriment into sobs and tears, while the spectators seized with irresistible sympathy wept, and the pantomimic revelry was chained to a real exhibition of tragic passion. It was not in my nature to derive consolation, from such scenes. From theaters whose buffoon laughter and discordant mirth awakened distempered sympathy, or were fictitious tears and wailings mocked the heartfelt grief within,

Starting point is 10:57:19 from festival or crowded meeting, where hilarity sprung from the worst feelings of our nature, or such enthronement of the better ones, as impressed it with garrish and false varnish, from assemblies of mourners in the guise of revelers. Once, however, I witnessed a scene of singular interest at one of the theatres, where nature overpowered a heart, as an overflowing cataract will tear away the puny manufacture of a mock cascade, which had before been fed by a small portion of its waters. I had come to London to see Adrian. He was not at the palace, and though the attendants did not know whether he had gone, they did not expect him till late at night. It was between six and seven o'clock, a fine summer afternoon, and I spent my leisure hours in a ramble through

Starting point is 10:58:04 the empty streets of London, now turning to avoid an approaching funeral, now urged by curiosity to observe the state of a particular spot. My wanderings were instinct with pain, for silence and desertion characterized every place I visited, and the few beings I met were so pale and woebegone, so marked with care and depressed by fear, that weary of encountering only signs of misery, I began to retread my steps toward home. I was now in Hallburn, and passed by a public-house filled with uproarious companions whose songs laughter and shouts were more sorrowful than the pale looks and silence of the mourner such an one was near hovering round this house the sorry plight of her dress displayed her poverty she was ghastly pale and continued approaching first the window and then the door of the house as if fearful yet longing to enter a sudden burst of song and merriment seemed to sting her to the heart She murmured, can he have the heart?

Starting point is 10:59:05 And then mustering her courage, she stepped within the threshold. The landlady met her in the passage. The poor creature asked, Is my husband dear? Can I see George? Say him, cried the woman. Yeah, if you go to him, last night he was taken with the plague. We sent him to the hospital. The unfortunate inquirer staggered against a wall.

Starting point is 10:59:26 A faint cry escaped her. Oh, were you cruel enough? She exclaimed. "'To send him there?' The landlady meanwhile hurried away. But a more compassionate barmaid gave her a detailed account, the sum of which was that her husband had been taken ill, after a night of riot and sent by his boon companions

Starting point is 10:59:45 with all expedition to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. I had watched this scene, for there was a gentleness about the poor woman that interested me. She now tottered away from the door, walking as well as she could, down Hallburn Hill, but her strength soon failed her. She leaned against a wall, and her head sunk on her bosom, while her pallid cheek became still more white. I went up to her and offered my services.

Starting point is 11:00:11 She hardly looked up. You can do me no good, she replied. I must go to the hospital, if I do not die before I get there. There were still a few hackney-coaches accustomed to stand about the streets, more truly from habit than for use. I put her in one of these and entered with her that I might secure her entrance into the hospital. our way was short and she said little except interrupted ejaculations of reproach that he had left her exclamations on the unkindness of some of his friends and hope that she would find him alive there was a simple natural earnestness about her that interested me in her fate especially when she assured me that her husband was the best of men had been so to want of business during these unhappy times had thrown him into bad company they could not bade to come home she said only to see her children die a man cannot have the patience a mother has with her own flesh and blood

Starting point is 11:01:07 we were set down at st botholomew's and entered the wretched precincts of the house of disease the poor creature clung closer to me as she saw with what heartless haste they bore the dead from the wards and took them into a room whose half-open door displayed a number of corpses horrible to behold by one unaccustomed to such scenes. We were directed to the ward where her husband had been first taken, and still was, the nurse said, if alive. My companion looked eagerly from one bed to the other, till at the end of the ward she espied on a wretched bed, a squalid, haggard creature, writhing under the torture of disease. She rushed towards him, she embraced him, blessing God for his preservation.

Starting point is 11:01:52 The enthusiasm that inspired her with a strange joy, blinded her to the horrors about her, but they were intolerably agonizing to me. The ward was filled with an affluvia that caused my heart to heave with painful qualms. The dead were carried out, and the sick brought in with like indifference. Some were screaming with pain, others laughing from the influence of more terrible delirium. Some were attended by weeping, despairing relations. Others called aloud with thrilling tenderness or reproach on the friends who had deserted them, while the nurses went from bed to bed, incarnate images of despair, neglect, and death.

Starting point is 11:02:30 I gave gold to my luckless companion. I recommended her to the care of the attendants. I then hastened away, while the torment and the imagination busied itself in picturing my own loved ones, stretched on such beds, attended us. The country afforded no such mass of horrors. Solitary wretches died in the open fields, and I have found a survivor in a vacant village, contending at once with famine and disease,

Starting point is 11:02:56 but the assembly of pestilence, the banqueting hall of death, was spread only in London. I rambled on, oppressed, distracted by painful emotions. Suddenly I found myself before Drury Lane Theatre. The play was Macbeth.

Starting point is 11:03:14 The first actor of the age was there to exert his powers to drug with irreflection the auditors. Such a medicine I yearned for, so I entered. The theatre was tolerably well-filled. Shakespeare, whose popularity was established by the approval of four centuries, had not lost his influence even at this dread period, but was still Utmeijus, the wizard to rule our hearts and govern our imaginations. I came in during the interval between the third and fourth act. I looked round on the audience. The females were mostly of the lower classes, but the men were of all ranks, come hither to forget a while the protracted scenes of wretchedness which awaited them at their miserable homes.

Starting point is 11:03:55 the curtain drew up and the stage presented the scene of the witch's cave the wildness and supernatural machinery of macbeth was a pledge that it could contain little directly connected with our present circumstances great pains had been taken in the scenery to give the semblance of reality to the impossible the extreme darkness of the stage whose only light was received from the fire under the cauldron joined to a kind of mist that floated about it rendered the unearthly shapes of the witches obscure and shadowy it was not three decrepit old hags that bent over their pot throwing in the grim ingredients of the magic charm but forms frightful unreal and fanciful the entrance of hecete and the wild music that followed took us out of this world the caverns shaped the stage assumed the beetling rocks the glare of the fire the misty shades that crossed the scene at times the music in harmony with all witch-like fancies permitted the imagination to revel without fear of contradiction or reproof from reason or the heart The entrance of Macbeth did not destroy the illusion, for he was actuated by the same feelings that inspired us. And while the work of magic proceeded, we sympathized in his wonder and his daring, and gave ourselves up with our whole souls to the influence of scenic delusion. I felt the beneficial result of such excitement, in a renewal of those pleasing flights of fancy to which I had long been a stranger.

Starting point is 11:05:18 The effect of this scene of incantation communicated a portion of its power to that which followed. We forgot that Malcolm and MacDough were mere human beings, acted upon by such simple passions as warmed our own breasts. By slow degrees, however, we were drawn to the real interest of the sea. A shudder like the swift passing of an electric shock ran through the house, when Rosset exclaimed, in answer to stand Scotland where it did, Alas, poor country, almost afraid to know itself. It cannot be called our mother, but our grave.

Starting point is 11:05:51 where nothing, but who knows nothing, is once seen to smile, where sighs and groans and shrieks that rent the air, are made, not marked, where violent sorrow seems a modern ecstasy, the dead man's knell is their scarce-assed, for who, and good men's lives expire before the flowers in their caps, dying or ere they sicken? Each word struck the sense as our life's passing bell. We fear to look at each other,

Starting point is 11:06:16 but bent our gaze on the stage, as if our eyes could fall innocuous on that alone. the person who played the part of rossi suddenly became aware of the dangerous ground he troth he was an inferior actor but truth now made him excellent as he went on to announce to macduff the slaughter of his family he was afraid to speak trembling from apprehension of a burst of grief from the audience not from his fellow-mime each word was drawn out with difficulty real anguish painted his features his eyes were now lifted in sudden horror now fixed in dread upon the ground. This shoe of terror increased ours. We gasped with him. Each neck was stretched out. Each face changed with the actus changes. At length, while McDuff, who attending to his part, was unobservant to the high-wrought sympathy of the house, cried with well-acted passion, All my pretty ones? Did you say all? Oh, Hell-kite, all? What? All my pretty chickens,

Starting point is 11:07:18 and their dam at one fell swoop. A pang of timeless grief wrenched every heart. A burst of despair was echoed from every lip. I had entered into the universe of feeling. I had been absorbed by the terrors of Rossi. I re-echoed the cry of McDuff, and then rushed out as from an hell of torture to find calm in the free air and silent street.

Starting point is 11:07:42 Free the air was not, or the street silent. Oh, how I longed then for the dear soothings of maternal nature as my wounded heart was still further stung by the roar of heartless merriment from the public-house, by the sight of the drunkard reeling home, having lost the memory of what he would find there in oblivious debauch, and by the more appalling salutations of those melancholy beings to whom the name of home was a mockery. I ran on at my utmost speed until I found myself. I knew not how, close to Westminster Abbey, and was attracted by the deep and swelling tone of the organ. I entered with soothing awe the lighted chancel, and listened to the solomon, and listened to the solomon.

Starting point is 11:08:18 and religious chant, which spoke peace and hope to the unhappy. The notes freighted with man's dearest prayers, re-echoed through the dim isles, and the bleeding of the soul's wounds was stanched by heavenly balm. In spite of the misery I deprecated, and could not understand, in spite of the cold hearths of wide London and the corpse-strewn fields of my native land, in spite of all the variety of agonizing emotions I had that evening experience, I thought that in reply to a melodious adjurations, the Creator looked down in compassion and promise of relief. The awful peal of the heaven-winged music seemed fitting voice wherewith to commune with the Supreme. Calm was produced by its sound, and by the sight of many other human creatures offering up prayers and submission with me.

Starting point is 11:09:10 A sentiment approaching happiness followed the total resignation of one's being to the guardianship of the world's ruler. Alas, with the failing of this solemn strain, the elevated spirit sank again to earth. Suddenly, one of the choristers died. He was lifted from his desk. The vaults below were hastily opened. He was consigned with a few muttered prayers to the darksome cavern, a boat of thousands who had gone before,

Starting point is 11:09:38 now wide, yawning to receive even all who fulfilled the funeral rights. In vain I would then have turned from the sea, to darkened isle or lofty dome, echoing with melodious praise. In the open air alone I found relief. Among nature's beauteous works, her God reassumed his attribute of benevolence, and again I could trust that he who built up the mountains, planted the forests, and poured out the rivers, would erect another state for lost humanity,

Starting point is 11:10:06 where we might awaken again to our affections, our happiness, and our faith. Fortunately for me, those circumstances were of rare occurrence that obliged me to visit London, and my duties were combined to the rural district which our lofty castle overlooked. And here labour stood in the place of pastime, to occupy such of the country people as were sufficiently exempt from sorrow or disease. My endeavours were directed towards urging them to their usual attention to their crops and to the acting as if pestilence did not exist. The mower's scythe was at times heard, yet the joyless haymakers after they had listlessly turned the grass forgot to cart it. the shepherd when he had sheared a sheep would let the wall lie to be scattered by the winds deeming it useless to provide clothing for another winter at times however the spirit of life was awakened by these employments

Starting point is 11:10:57 the sun the refreshing breeze the sweet smell of the hay the rustling leaves and prattling rivulets brought repose to the agitated bosom and bestowed a feeling akin to happiness on the apprehensive nor strange to say was the time without its pleasures young couples who had loved long and hopelessly suddenly found every impediment removed and wealth pour in from the death of relatives the very danger drew them closer the immediate peril urged them to seize the immediate opportunity wildly and passionately they sought to know what delights existence afforded before they yielded to death and snatching their pleasures with rough strife thorough the iron gates of life they defied the conquering pestilence to destroy what had been or to erase even from their death and to snatch their pleasures with rough strife thorough the iron gates of life they defied the conquering pestilence to destroy what had been or to erase even from their death Deathbed thoughts the sentiment of happiness which had been theirs. One instance of this kind came immediately under our notice, where a high-born girl had in early youth given her art to one of the meaner extraction. He was a schoolfellow and friend of her brothers, and usually spent a part of the holidays at the mansion of the Duke, her father.

Starting point is 11:12:04 They had played together as children, in the confidence of each other's little secrets, mutual aids and consolers in difficulty and sorrow. love had crept in, noiseless, terrorless at first, till each felt their life bound up in the other, and at the same time knew that they must part. Their extreme youth and the purity of their attachment made them yield with less resistance to the tyranny of circumstances. The father of the fair Juliet separated them, but not until the young lover had promised to remain absent only till he had rendered himself worthy of her, and she had vowed to preserve her virgin

Starting point is 11:12:40 and hard, his treasure, till he returned to claim and possess it. Plague came, threatening to destroy at once the aim of the ambitious and the hopes of love. Long the Duke of Eld derided the idea that there could be danger while he pursued his plans of cautious seclusion, and he so far succeeded that it was not till the second summer that the destroyer at one fell stroke over through his precautions, his security, and his life. poor Juliet saw one by one, father, mother, brothers, and sisters sicken and die. Most of the servants fled on the first appearance and disease. Those who remained were infected mortally.

Starting point is 11:13:22 No neighbor of rustic ventured within the verge of contagion. By a strange fatality, Juliet alone escaped, and she, to the last, waited on her relatives and smoothed the pillow of death. The moment at length came when the last blow was given to the last of the house. The youthful survivor of her race sat alone among the dead. There was no living being near to soothe her, or withdraw her from this hideous company. With the declining heat of a September night,

Starting point is 11:13:56 a whirlwind of storm, thunder, and hail rattled round the house, and with ghastly harmony sung the dirge of her family. She sat upon the ground, absorbed, wordless despair, when through the gusty wind and bickering rain, she thought she heard her name called. Whose could that familiar voice be? Not one of her relations, for they lay glaring on her with stony eyes. Again her name was syllabond, and she shuddered as she asked herself,

Starting point is 11:14:24 Am I becoming mad, or am I dying that I hear the voices of the departed? A second thought passed, swift as an arrow into her brain. She rushed to the window, and a flash of lightning shewed to her the expected vision, her lover in the shrubbery beneath. Joy lent her strength to descend the stairs to open the door, and then she fainted in his supporting arms. A thousand times she reproached herself, as with a crime that she should revive to happiness with him.

Starting point is 11:14:52 The natural clinging of the human mind to life and joy was in its full energy in her young heart. She gave herself impetuously up to the enchantment. They were married, and in their radiant features I saw incarnate for the last time the spirit of love, of rapturous sympathy which once had been the life of the world. I envied them, but felt how impossible it was to imbib the same feeling now that years had multiplied my ties in the world.

Starting point is 11:15:22 Above all, the anxious mother, my own beloved and drooping Idris, claimed my earnest care. I could not reproach the anxiety, that never for a moment slept in her heart, but I exerted myself to distract her attention from too keen in observation of the truth of things, or the nearer and nearer approaches of disease, misery and death,

Starting point is 11:15:45 of the wild look of our attendants as intelligence of another, and yet another death reached us, for to the last something new occurred that seemed to transcend in horror all that had gone before. Wretched beings crawled to die under our succoring roof.

Starting point is 11:16:00 The inhabitants of the castle decreased daily While the survivors huddled together in fear And as in a famine struck boat The sport of the wild interminable waves Each looked in the other's face To guess on whom the death lot would next fall All this I endeavoured to veil So that it might least impress my interest

Starting point is 11:16:21 Yet as I have said My courage survived even despair I might be vanquished But I would not yield One day and was the ninth of September, seemed devoted to every disaster, to every harrowing incident. Early in the day, I heard of the arrival of the aged grandmother of one of our servants at the castle. This old woman had reached her hundredth year.

Starting point is 11:16:46 Her skin was shrivelled, her form was bent and lost in extreme decrepitude. But as still from year to year she continued in existence, outliving many younger and stronger, she began to feel as if she were to live forever. The plague came and the inhabitants of her village died, clinging with the dastard feeling of the aged to the remnant of her spent life, she had, on hearing that the pestilence had come into her neighborhood, barred her door and closed her casement, refusing to communicate with any.

Starting point is 11:17:17 She would wander out at night to get food and returned home, pleased that she had met no one, that she was in no danger from the plague. As the earth became more desolate, her difficulty in acquiring sustenance increased. At first her son, who lived near, had humoured her by placing articles of food in her way. At last he died.

Starting point is 11:17:40 But even though threatened by famine, her fear of the plague was paramount, and her greatest care was to avoid her fellow creatures. She grew weaker each day, and each day she had further to go. The night before she had reached Datchet, and, prowling about, had found a baker's short, open and deserted, laden with spoil she hastened to return and lost her way. The night was windless,

Starting point is 11:18:03 hot and cloudy. Her load became too heavy for her, and one by one she threw away her loaves, still endeavouring to get along, though her hobbling fell into lameness, and her weakness at last into inability to move. She lay down among the tall corn and fell asleep. Deep in midnight she was awakened by a rustling near her. She would have started up, but her. her stiff joints refused to obey her will. A low moan close to her ear followed, and the rustling increased. She heard a smothered voice breathe out, water, water, several times, and then again a sigh heaved from the heart of the sufferer.

Starting point is 11:18:44 The old woman shuddered. She contrived at length to sit upright, but her teeth chattered and her knees knocked together. Close, very close lay a half-naked figure, just discernible in the gloom, and the cry for water and the stifled moan were again uttered. Her motions at length attracted the attention of her unknown companion. Her hand was seized with a convulsive violence that made the grasp feel like iron, the fingers like the keen teeth of a trap. At last you are come, were the words given forth,

Starting point is 11:19:14 but this exertion was the last effort of the dying. The joints relaxed. The figure fell prostrate. One low moan, the last, marked the moment of death. mourning broke, and the old woman saw the corpse, marked with the fatal disease, close to her. Her wrist was livid with the hole loosened by death. She felt struck by the plague. Her aged frame was unable to bear her away with sufficient speed,

Starting point is 11:19:43 and now, believing herself infected, she no longer dreaded the association of others, but as swiftly as she might came to her granddaughter, at Windsor Castle, there to lament and die. The sight was horrible. still she clung to life and lamented her mischance with cries and hideous groans, while the swift advance of the disease shewed what proved to be the fact that she could not survive many hours. While I was directing that the necessary care should be taken of her, Clara came in. She was trembling and pale, and when I anxiously asked her at the cause of her agitation, she threw herself into my arms, weeping and exclaiming, Uncle, dearest uncle, do not hate me forever. I must tell you, for you must. You must. know that Evelyn, poor little Evelyn! Her voice was choked by sobs. The fear of so mighty

Starting point is 11:20:33 calamity as the loss of our adored infant made the current of my blood pause with chilly horror. But the remembrance of the mother restored my presence of mind. I sought the little bed of my darling. He was oppressed by fever. But I trusted, I fondly and fearfully trusted that there were no symptoms of the plague. He was not three years old, and his illness appeared, only one of those attacks incident to infancy. I watched him. long, his heavy, half-closed lids, his burning cheeks and restless twining of his small fingers. The fever was violent, the torpor complete, enough without the greater fear of pestilence to awaken alarm. Idris must not see him in the state. Clara, their only twelve years old,

Starting point is 11:21:16 was rendered through extreme sensibility, so prudent and careful that I felt secure and entrusting the charge of him to her, and it was my task to prevent Idris from observing their absence. I administered the fitting remedies, and left my sweet niece to watch beside him and bring me noticed of any change she should observe. I then went to Idris, contriving in my way, plausible excuses from remaining all day in the castle, and endeavouring to disperse the traces of care from my brow. Fortunately she was not alone. I found Marival, the astronomer with her. He was far too long-sighted in his view of humanity to heed the casualties of the day,

Starting point is 11:21:54 and lived in the midst of a contagion, unconscious. of its existence. This poor man, learned as Laplace, guileless and unforeseeing as a child, had often been on the point of starvation. He, his pale wife, a numerous offspring, while he neither felt hunger nor observed distress. His astronomical theories absorbed him. Calculations were scrawled with coal on the bare walls of his garret. A hard-earned guinea or an article of dress was exchanged for a book without remorse. He neither heard his children cry, nor observed his companion's emaciated form. And the excess of calamity was merely to him

Starting point is 11:22:30 as the occurrence of a cloudy night, when he would have given his right hand to observe a celestial phenomenon. His wife was one of those wondrous beings to be found only among women, with affections not to be diminished by misfortune. Her mind was divided between boundless admiration for her husband, and tender anxiety for her children.

Starting point is 11:22:51 She waited on him, worked for them, and never complained, though care rendered her life one long-drawn, melancholy dream. He had introduced himself to Adrian, by a request he made to observe some planetary motions from his glass. His poverty was easily detected and relieved. He often thanked us for the books we lent him and for the use of our instruments,

Starting point is 11:23:14 but never spoke of his altered abode or change of circumstances. His wife assured us that he had not observed any difference, except in the absence of the children from his study, and to her infinite surprise he complained of this unaccustomed quiet. He came now to announce to us the completion of his essay on the paracyclical motions of the earth's axis and the procession of the equinoctial points. If an old Roman of the period of the Republic had returned to life

Starting point is 11:23:42 and talked of the impending election of some laurel-crowned council, or of the last battle with Mithridates, his ideas would not have been more alien to the times than the conversation of Mareville. man no longer with an appetite for sympathy clothed his thoughts and visible signs nor were there any readers left while each one having thrown away his sword

Starting point is 11:24:04 with opposing shield alone awaited the plague Mareville talked of the state of mankind six thousand years hence he might with equal interest to us have added a commentary to describe the unknown and unimaginable lineaments of the creatures who would then occupy the vacated dwelling of mankind We had not the heart to undeceive the poor old man, and at the moment I came in he was reading parts of his book to Idris, asking what answer could be given to this or that physician. Idris could not refrain from a smile as she listened. She had already gathered from him that his family was alive and in health, though not apt to forget the precipice of time on which she stood.

Starting point is 11:24:43 Yet I could perceive that she was amused for a moment. By the contrast between the contracted view we had so long taken of human life, and the seven league strides with which Marraville pays to coming eternity. I was glad to see her smile, because it assured me of her total ignorance of her infant's danger, but I shuddered to think of the revulsion that would be occasioned by a discovery of the truth. While Marival was talking, Clara softly opened a door behind Idris, and beckoned me to come with a gesture and look of grief. A mirror betrayed the sign to Idris.

Starting point is 11:25:16 She started up, to suspect evil to perceive that, "'Alfred being with us, the danger must regard her youngest darling. "'To fly across the long chambers into his apartment was the work but of a moment. "'There she beheld her Evelyn, lying fever-stricken emotions. "'I followed her and strove to inspire more hope than I could myself entertain, "'but she shook her head mournfully. "'Anguish deprived her of presence of mind. "'She gave up to me and Clara the physicians and nurse's parts.

Starting point is 11:25:47 "'She sat by the bed holding one little burning hands, and with glazed eyes fixed on her babe, past the long day in one unvaryed agony. It was not the plague that visited our little boy so roughly, but she could not listen to my assurances. Apprehension deprived her of judgment and reflection. Every slight convulsion of her child's features shook her frame. If he moved, she dreaded the instant crisis.

Starting point is 11:26:13 If he remained still, she saw death in his torpor, and the cloud on her brow darkened. The poor little thing's fever increased towards night. The sensation is most dreary to use no stronger term, with which one looks forward to passing the long hours of night beside a sick-bed, especially if the patient be an infant who cannot explain its pain and whose flickering life resembles the wasting flame of the watch-light, whose narrow fire is shaken by the wind,

Starting point is 11:26:41 and on whose edge devouring darkness hovers. With eagerness one turns toward the east, With angry impatience, one marks the unchecked darkness. The crowing of a cock, that sound of glee during daytime, comes wailing and untunable. The creaking of rafters and slight stir of invisible insect is heard and felt as the signal and type of desolation. Clara, overcome by weariness, had seated herself at the foot of her cousin's bed, and in spite of her efforts slumber weighed down her lids. Twice or thrice she shook it off, but at length she was conquered and slept.

Starting point is 11:27:18 Idris sat at the bedside, holding Evelyn's hand. We were afraid to speak to each other. I watched the stars. I hung over my child. I felt his little pulse. I drew near the mother again, I receded. At the turn of morning a gentle sigh from the patient attracted me. The burning spot on his cheek faded.

Starting point is 11:27:41 His pulse beat softly and regularly. Torper yielded to sleep. For a long time I've been. dared not hope but when his unobstructed breathing in the moisture that suffused his forehead were tokens no longer to be mistaken of the departure of mortal malady i ventured to whisper the news of the change to itris and at length succeeded in persuading her that i spoke true but neither this assurance nor the speedy complaisance of our child could restore her even to the portion of peace she before enjoyed her fear had been too deep too absorbing too entire to be changed to security she felt as if during her past calm she had dreamed but was now awake she was as one in some lone watch-tower on the deep awakened from soothing visions of the home he loves trembling to hear the wrathful billows roar as one who has been cradled by a storm and awakes to find the vessel sinking before she had been visited by pangs of fear now she never enjoyed an interval of hope no smile of the heart ever irradiated her fair countenance Sometimes she forced one, and then gushing tears would flow, and the sea of grief close around these wrecks of past happiness.

Starting point is 11:28:55 Still, while I was near her, she could not be in utter despair. She fully confided herself to me. She did not seem to fear my death, or revert to its possibility. To my guardianship she consigned the full freight of her anxieties, reposing on my love, as a wind-nipped fawn by the side of a doe, as a wounded, nestle. under its mother's wing, as a tiny shattered boat, quivering still, beneath some protecting willow-tree. While I, not proudly as in days of joy, yet tenderly and with glad consciousness of the comfort

Starting point is 11:29:32 I afforded, drew my trembling girl close to my heart, and tried to ward every painful thought her rough circumstance from her sensitive nature. One other incident occurred at the end of this summer, the Countess of Windsor, the Countess of Windsor, ex-Queen of England, returned from Germany. She had, at the beginning of the season, quitted the vacant city of Vienna, and, unable to tame her haughty mind to anything like submission,

Starting point is 11:29:59 she had delayed at Hamburg, and when at last she came to London, many weeks elapsed before she gave Adrian noted of her rival. In spite of her coldness and long absence, he welcomed her with sensibility, displaying such affectionate as sought to heal the wounds of pride and sorrow, and was repulsed only by her

Starting point is 11:30:17 total apparent want of sympathy. Idris heard of her mother's return with pleasure. Her own maternal feelings were so ardent that she imagined her parent must now, in this waste world, have lost pride and harshness, and would receive would delight her filial attentions. The first check to her dutious demonstrations was a formal intimation from the fallen Majesty of England, that I was in no manner to be intruded upon her. She consented, she said, to forgive her daughter and acknowledge her grandchildren, larger concessions must not be expected. To me, this proceeding appeared, if so light a term may be permitted, extremely whimsical. Now that the race of man had lost, in fact, all distinction of rank, this pride was doubly fortuitous. Now that we felt a kindred fraternal nature with all

Starting point is 11:31:07 who bore the stamp of humanity, this angry reminiscence of times forever gone was worse than foolish. Idris was too much taken up by her own dreadful fears to be angry, hardly grieved, for she judged that insensibility must be the source of this continued rancour. This was not altogether the fact, but predominant self-will assumed the arms and mask of callous feeling, and the haughty lady disdain to exhibit any token of the struggle she endured, while the slave of pride she fancied that she sacrificed her happiness to a mutable principle. false was all this false all but the affections of our nature and the links of sympathy with pleasure or pain there was but one good and one evil in the world life and death The pump of rank, the assumption of power, the possessions of wealth vanished like morning myths. One living beggar had become of more worth than a national peerage of dead lords. Alas, the day, than of dead heroes, patriots, or men of genius.

Starting point is 11:32:12 There was much of degradation in this, for even vice and virtue had lost their attributes. Life, life, the continuation of our animal mechanism, was the alpha and omega of the desires, the prayers, the prostrate ambition of human race. End of Chapter 8. Volume 2, Chapter 9 of The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org.

Starting point is 11:32:51 Recording by Madeira. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Volume 2, Chapter 9. Half England was decedestined. when October came, and the equinoctial wind swept over the earth, chilling the ardors of the unhealthy season. The summer, which was uncommonly hot, had been protracted into the beginning of this month, when on the 18th a sudden change was brought about from summer temperature to winter frost. Pestilence then made a pause in her death-dealing career, gasping, not daring to name our hopes,

Starting point is 11:33:30 yet full even to the brim with intense expectation, we stood as a shipwrecked sailor stands on a barren rock islanded by the ocean, watching a distant vessel, fancying that now it nears, and then again that it is bearing from sight. This promise of a renewed lease of life turned rugged natures to melting tenderness, and by contrast filled the soft with harsh and unnatural sentiments. When it seemed destined that all were to die, we were reckless of the how and when, now that the virulence of the disease was mitigated and it appeared willing to spare some each was eager to be among the elect and clung to life with dastard tenacity instances of desertion became more frequent and even murders which made the heroes sick with horror where the fear of contagion had armed those nearest in blood against each other but these smaller and separate tragedies were about to yield to a mightier interest and while we were promised calm from infectious influences a tempest arose wilder than the winds a tempest bred by the passions of man nourished by his most violent impulses unexampled and dire

Starting point is 11:34:43 a number of people from north america the relics of that populous continent had set sail for the east with mad desire of change leaving their native plains for lands not less afflicted than their own several hundreds landed in ireland about the first of november and took possession of such vacant habitations as they could find seizing upon the superabundant food and the stray cattle as they exhausted the produce of one spot they went on to another at length they began to interfere with the inhabitants and strong in their concentrated numbers ejected the natives from their dwellings and robbed them of their winter store a few events of this kind roused the fiery nature of the irish and they attacked the invaders some were destroyed the major part escaped by quick and well-ordered movements and danger made them careful their numbers ably arranged the very deaths among them concealed moving on in good order and apparently given up to enjoyment they excited the envy of the irish the americans permitted a few to join their band and presently the recruits outnumbered the strangers nor did they join with them, nor imitate the admirable order which preserved by the transatlantic chiefs rendered them at once secure and formidable. The Irish followed their track in disorganized multitudes each day increasing, each day becoming more lawless. The Americans were eager to escape from the spirit they had roused, and, reaching the eastern shores of the island, embarked for England.

Starting point is 11:36:14 Their incursion would hardly have been felt had they come alone. But the Irish, collected in unnatural numbers, began to feel. the inroads of famine, and they followed in the wake of the Americans for England also. The crossing of the sea could not arrest their progress. The harbours of the desolate seaports of the west of Ireland were filled with vessels of all sizes, from the man-of-war to the small fisher's boat, which lay cellarless and rotting on the lazy deep. The emigrants embarked by hundreds, and unfurling their sails with rude hands made strange havoc of buoy and cordage. Those who modestly betook themselves to the smaller craft, for the most part, achieved their watery journey and safety.

Starting point is 11:36:56 Some, and the true spirit of reckless enterprise, went on board a ship of a hundred and twenty guns. The vast hull drifted with the tide out of the bay, and after many hours its crew of landsmen contrived to spread a great part of her enormous canvas. The wind took it, and while a thousand mistakes at the helmsman made her present her head now to one point and now to another, the vast fields of canvas that formed her sails flapped with a sound like that of a huge cataract, or such as a sea-like forest may give forth when buffeted by an equinoxial north wind. The portals were open, and with every sea, which as she lurched washed her decks, they received whole tons of water. The difficulties were increased by a fresh breeze which began to blow,

Starting point is 11:37:39 whistling among the shrouds, dashing the sails this way and that, and rending them with horrid split. and such were as may have visited the dreams of Milton when he imagined the winnowing of the archfiends van like wings which increased the uproar of wild chaos. These sounds were mingled with the roaring of the sea, the splash of the chafed billows around the vessel's sides, and the gurgling up of the water and the hold.

Starting point is 11:38:04 The crew, many of whom had never seen the sea before, felt indeed as if heaven and earth came ruining together, as the vessel dipped her boughs in the waves or rose high upon them. their yells were drowned in the clamour of elements and the thunder writhings of their unwieldy habitation they discovered at last that the water gained on them and they betook themselves to their pumps they might as well have labored to empty the ocean by bucketfuls as the sun went down the gale increased the ship seemed to feel her danger she was now completely water-logged and presented other indications of settling before she went down the bay was crowded with vessels whose crews for the most part were observing the uncouth sportings of this huge unwieldy machine they saw her gradually sink the waters now rising above her lower decks they could hardly wink before she had utterly disappeared nor could the place where the sea had closed over her be at all discerned some few of her crew were saved but the greater part clinging to her cordage in masts went down with her to her to rise only when death loosened their hold this event caused many of those who were about to sail to put foot again on firm land ready to encounter any evil rather than to rush into the yawning jaws of the pitiless ocean

Starting point is 11:39:28 but these were few in comparison to the numbers who actually crossed many went up as high as belfast to ensure a shorter passage and then journeying south through scotland they were joined by the poor natives of that country and all poured with one consent into england such incursions struck the English with a fright in all those towns where there was still sufficient population to feel the change there was room enough indeed in our hapless country for twice the number of invaders but their lawless spirit instigated them to violence they took a delight in thrusting the possesses from their houses in seizing on some mansion of luxury where the noble dwellers secluded themselves in fear of the plague in forcing these of either sex to become their certain

Starting point is 11:40:15 and purveyors, till the ruin complete in one place they removed their locust visitation to another. When unopposed, they spread their ravages wide. In cases of danger, they clustered, and by dint of numbers, overthrew their weak and despairing foes. They came from the east and the north, and directed their course without apparent motive, but unanimously towards our unhappy metropolis. Communication had been to a great degree cut off through the paralyzing effects of pestilence. so that the van of our invaders had proceeded as far as Manchester and Derby before we received notice of their arrival. They swept the country like a conquering army, burning, laying waste, murdering! The lower and vagabondingless joined with them.

Starting point is 11:41:02 Some few of the Lord's lieutenant, who remained, endeavored to collect the militia, but the ranks were vacant. Panics seized on all in the opposition that was made only served to increase the audacity and cruelty of the enemy. They talked of taking London, conquering a few people. England, calling to mind the long detail of injuries which had for many years been forgotten. Such vaunts displayed their weakness, rather than their strength. Yet still they might do extreme mischief, which ending in their destruction would render them at last objects of compassion and remorse. We were now taught how, in the beginning of the world, mankind clothed their enemies

Starting point is 11:41:40 in impossible attributes, and how details, proceeding from mouth to mouth, might, like Virgil's ever-growing rumor, reached the heavens with her brow, and clasp Hesperus and Lucifer with her outstretched hands. Gorgon and centaur, dragon and iron-hoofed lion, vast sea-monster and gigantic hydra were but types of the strange and appalling accounts brought to London concerning our invaders. Their landing was long unknown, but having now advanced within a hundred miles of London, the country people flying before them had arrived in successive troops, eats exaggerating the numbers fury and cruelty of the assailants tumult filled the before quiet streets women and children deserted their homes escaping they knew not whither fathers husbands and sons stood trembling not for themselves but for their loved and defenseless relations as the country people poured into london the citizens fled southwards they climbed the higher edifices of the town fancying that they could discern the smoke and flames the enemy spread around them as wind

Starting point is 11:42:44 sir lay, to a great degree, in the line of march from the west, I removed my family to London, assigning the tower for their sojourn, and joining Adrian acted as his lieutenant in the coming struggle. We employed only two days in our preparations, and made good use of them. Artillery and arms were collected. The remnants of such regiments as could be brought through many losses into any show of muster were put under arms, with that appearance of military discipline which might encourage our own party, and seem most formidable to the disorganized multitude of our enemies. Even music was not wanting. Banners floated in the air, and the shrill fife and loud trumpet breathed forth sounds of encouragement in victory. A practiced ear might trace an undue

Starting point is 11:43:28 faltering in the step of the soldiers, but this was not occasioned so much by fear of the adversary as by disease, by sorrow, and by fatal prognostications which often weighed most potently on the brave, and quelled the manly heart to abject subjection. Adrian led the troops. He was full of care. It was small relief to him that our discipline should gain us success in such a conflict. While plague still hovered to equalize the conqueror and the conquered, it was not a victory that he desired, but bloodless peace.

Starting point is 11:44:01 As we advanced we were met by bands of peasantry, whose almost naked condition, whose despair and horror told at once the fierce nature of the coming enemy. The senseless spirit of conquest and thirst of spoil blinded them, while with insane fury they deluge the country in ruin. The sight of the military restored hope to those who fled, and revenged a place of fear. They inspired the soldiers with the same sentiment. Langer was changed to ardor, the slow step converted to a speedy pace, while the hollow murmur of the multitude, inspired by one feeling, and that deadly, filled the air, drowning the playing of arms and sound of music. Adrian perceived the change, and feared that it would be difficult

Starting point is 11:44:43 to prevent them from wreaking their utmost fury on the Irish. He rode through the lines, charging the officers to restrain the troops, exhorting the soldiers restoring order, and quieting in some degree the violent agitation that swelled every bosom. We first came upon a few stragglers of the Irish at St. Albans. They retreated, and, joining others of their companions, still fell back, till they reached. the main body. Tidings of an armed and regular opposition recalled them to a sort of order. They made Buckingham their headquarters, and scouts were sent out to ascertain our situation. We remained for the night at Luton. In the morning a simultaneous movement caused us each to advance.

Starting point is 11:45:26 It was early dawn, and the air, impregnated with freshest odor, seemed in idle mockery to play with our banners, and bore onwards towards the enemy the music of the bands, the neighings of the horses and regular steps of the infantry. The first sound of martial instruments that came upon our undisciplined foe inspired surprise, not unmingled with dread. It spoke of other days, of days of conquered and order. It was associated with times when plague was not, and man lived beyond the shadow of imminent fate. The pause was momentary. Soon we heard their disorderly clamour, The barbarian shouts, the untimed step of thousands coming on in disarray. Their troops now came pouring on us from the open country or narrow lanes.

Starting point is 11:46:14 A large extent of unenclosed fields lay between us. We advanced to the middle of this and then made a halt. Being somewhat on superior ground, we could discern the space they covered. When their leaders perceived us drawn out in opposition, they also gave the word to halt, and endeavored to form their men into some imitation of military discipline. The first ranks had muskets. some were mounted, but their arms were such as they had seized during their advance,

Starting point is 11:46:39 their horses, those they had taken from the peasantry. There was no uniformity, and little obedience, but their shouts and wild gestures showed the untamed spirit that inspired them. Our soldiers received the word and advanced to quickest time, but in perfect order, their uniform dresses, the gleam of their polished arms, their silence and looks of sullen hate, were more appalling than the savage clamor of our own. innumerous foe. Thus coming nearer and nearer each other, the howls and shouts of the Irish increased.

Starting point is 11:47:12 The English proceeded in obedience to their officers, until they came near enough to distinguish the faces of their enemies. The sight inspired them with fury, with one cry that rent heaven and was re-echoed by the furthest lines. They rushed on. They disdain the use of the bullet, but with fixed bayonet dashed among the opposing foe, while the ranks opening at intervals the matchman lighted the cannon, whose deafening roar and blinding smoke filled up the horror of the scene. I was beside Adrian. A moment before he had again given the word to halt and had remained a few yards distant from us in deep meditation.

Starting point is 11:47:46 He was forming swiftly his plan of action to prevent the effusion of blood. The noise of cannon, the sudden rush of the troops and yell of the foes startled him. With flashing eyes he exclaimed, Not one of these must perish! And plunging the rowels into his horse's sides, he dashed between the conflicting bands. We, his staff, followed him to surround and protect him, obeying his signal, however, we fell back somewhat.

Starting point is 11:48:09 The soldier, perceiving him, paused in their onset. He did not swerve from the bullets that passed near him, but rode immediately between the opposing lines. Silence succeeded to clamor. About fifty men lay on the ground dying or dead. Adrian raised his sword and act to speak. By whose command? he cried, addressing his own troops. Do you advance?

Starting point is 11:48:30 Who ordered your attack? Fall back. These misguided men shall not be slaughtered When I am your general. Sheathe your weapons. These are your brothers. Commit not fratricide. Soon the plague would not leave one of you

Starting point is 11:48:45 To glut your revenge upon. Will you be more pitiless than pestilence? As you honour me, As you worship God in whose image Those also are created, As your children and friends are dear to you, shed not a drop of precious human blood. He spoke.

Starting point is 11:49:00 with outstretched hand and winning voice, and then turning to our invaders, with a severe brow he commanded them to lay down their arms. Do you think, he said, that because we are wasted by plague, you can overcome us? The plague is also among you, and when ye are vanquished by famine and disease, the ghosts of those you have murdered

Starting point is 11:49:21 will arise to bid you not hope in death. Lay down your arms barbarous and cruel men, men whose hands are stained with the blood of the innocent, whose souls are weighed down by the orphans cry. We shall conquer, for the right is on our side. Already your cheeks are pale. The weapons fall from your nerveless grasp. Lay down your arms, fellow men, brethren, pardon, succour, and brotherly love await your repentance. You are dear to us because you wear the frail shape of humanity.

Starting point is 11:49:55 each one among you will find a friend and host among these forces shall man be the enemy of man while plague the foe to all even now is above us triumphing in our butchery more cruel than her own each army paused on our side the soldiers grasped their arms firmly and looked with stern glances on the foe these had not thrown down their weapons more from fear than the spirit of contest they looked at each other. other, each wishing to follow some example given him, but they had no leader. Adrian threw himself from his horse and approaching one of these just slain. He was a man, he cried, and he is dead. Oh, quickly bind up the wounds of the fallen. Let not one die. Let not one more soul escape through your merciless gashes to relate before the throne of God, the tale of fratricide. Bind up their wounds. Restore. Restore. them to their friends. Cast away the hearts of tigers that burn in your breasts. Throw down those

Starting point is 11:51:01 tools of cruelty and hate. In this pause of exterminating destiny, let each man be brother, guardian, and stay to the other. Away with those blood-stained arms and hasten some of you to bind up these wounds! As he spoke, he knelt on the ground, and raised in his arms a man from whose side the warm tide of life gushed. The poor wretch gasped, so still had I. either host become, that his moans were distantly heard, and every heart, late fiercely bent on universal massacre, now beat anxiously in hope and fear for the fate of this one man. Adrian tore off his military scarf and bounded round the sufferer. It was too late.

Starting point is 11:51:42 The man heaved a deep sigh. His head fell back. His limbs lost their sustaining power. He is dead, said Adrian, as the corpse fell from his arms on the ground, and he he bowed his head in sorrow and awe. The fate of the world seemed bound up in the death of this single man. On either side the bands threw down their arms, even the veterans wept in our party held out their hands to their foes, while a gush of love and deepest amity filled every heart. The two forces mingling, unarmed and hand in hand, talking only how each might assist the other,

Starting point is 11:52:20 the adversaries conjoined, each repenting, the one side their formal cruelty, the other their late violence, they obeyed the orders of the general to proceed towards London. Adrian was obliged to exert his utmost prudence, first to allay the discord and then to provide for the multitude of the invaders. They were marched to various parts of the southern counties, quartered in deserted villages. A part were sent back to their own island, while the season of winter so far revived our energy, that the passes of the country were defended and any increase of numbers prohibited.

Starting point is 11:52:53 On this occasion, Adrian and Idris met after a separation of nearly a year. Adrian had been occupied in fulfilling a laborious and painful task. He had been familiar with every species of human misery, and had forever found his powers inadequate, his aid of small avail. Yet the purpose of his soul, his energy and ardent resolution, prevented any reaction of sorrow. He seemed born anew and virtue more potent than Medean alchemy, and dwed him with health and strength. Idris hardly recognized the fragile being,

Starting point is 11:53:27 whose form had seemed to bend even to the summer breeze, in the energetic man whose very excess of sensibility rendered him more capable of fulfilling his station of pilot in storm-tossed England. It was not thus with Idris. She was uncomplaining, but the very soul of fear had taken its seat in her heart. She had grown thin and pale. Her eyes filled with involuntary tears,

Starting point is 11:53:52 her voice was broken and low. She tried to throw a veil over the change which she knew her brother must observe on her, but the effort was ineffectual, and when alone with him, with a burst of irrepressible grief, she gave vent to her apprehensions and sorrow. She described in vivid terms

Starting point is 11:54:10 the ceaseless care that with still renewing hunger ate into her soul. She compared this gnawing, with sleepless expectation of evil, to the vulture that fed on the heart of Prometheus. Under the influence of this eternal excitement, and of the interminable struggles she endured to combat and conceal it, she felt, she said, as if all the wheels and springs of the animal machine worked at double rate and were fast consuming themselves. Sleep was not sleep, for her waking thoughts bridled by some remains of reason, and by the sight of her children happy and in health, were then transformed to wild dreams. All her terrors were realized, all her fears received their dread fulfillment.

Starting point is 11:54:48 To this state there was no hope, no alleviation, unless the grave should quickly receive its destined prey, and she be permitted to die, before she experienced a thousand living deaths in the loss of those she loved. Fearing to give me pain, she hid as best she could the excess of her wretchedness, but meeting thus her brother after a long absence, she could not restrain the expression of her woe. But with all the vividness of imagination, with which misery is always referred, pleat. She poured out the emotions of her heart to her beloved and sympathizing Adrienne. Her present visit to London tended to augment her state of inquietude, by shewing in its utmost extent the ravages occasioned by pestilence. It hardly preserved the appearance of an inhabited city. Grass sprung up thick in the streets.

Starting point is 11:55:39 The squares were weed-grown. The houses were shut up, while silence and loneliness characterized the busiest parts of the town. yet in the midst of desolation, Adrian had preserved order, and each one continued to live according to law and custom, human institutions thus surviving as it were divine ones. And while the decree a population was abrogated, property continued sacred. It was a melancholy reflection, and in spite of the diminution of evil produced, it struck on the heart as a wretched mockery. All idea of resort for pleasure of theatres and festivals have passed away. next summer said adrian as we parted on our return to windsor will decide the fate of the human race i shall not pause of my exertions until their time but if plague revives with the coming year all contest with her must cease and our only occupation be the choice of a grave i must not forget one incident that occurred during this visit to london the visits of marraville to windsor before frequent had suddenly ceased at this time where but a hare's line separated the living from the dead i feared that our friend had become a victim to the all-embracing evil on this occasion i went dreading the worst to his dwelling to see if i could be of any service to those of his family who might have survived

Starting point is 11:57:04 the house was deserted and had been one of those assigned to the invading strangers quartered in london i saw his astronomical instruments put to strange uses his globes defaced his pears papers covered with obstruced calculations destroyed. The neighbors could tell me little, till I lighted on a poor woman who acted as nurse in these perilous times. She told me that all the family were dead, except Marival himself who had gone mad. Mad, she called it, yet unquestioning her further, it appeared that he was possessed only by the delirium of excessive grief. This old man, tottering on the edge of the grave, and prolonging his prospect through millions of calculated years. This visionary who had not seen starvation in the wasted forms of his wife and children, or plague in the horrible sights and sounds that surrounded him, this astronomer apparently dead

Starting point is 11:57:58 on earth, and living only in the motion of the spheres, loved his family with unapparent, but intense affection. Through long habit they had become a part of himself. His want of worldly knowledge, his absence of mind and infant guilelessness, made him utterly dependent on them. It was not till one of them died that he perceived their danger. One by one they were carried off by pestilence, and his wife, his helpmate and supporter, more necessary to him than his own limbs and frame, which had hardly been taught the lesson of self-preservation. The kind companion whose voice always spoke peace to him, closed her eyes in death. The old man felt the system of universal nature which he had so long studied and adored slide from my mind.

Starting point is 11:58:45 under him, and he stood among the dead, and lifted his voice and curses. No wonder that the attendant should interpret as frenzy, the harrowing maledictions of the grief-struckled man. I had commenced my search late in the day, a November day, that closed in early with pattering rain in melancholy wind. As I turned from the door, I saw Marravel, or rather the shadow of Marravel, attenuated in wild past me, and sit on the steps of his home. the breeze scattered the grey locks on his temples the rain drenched his uncovered head he sat hiding his face in his withered hands i pressed his shoulder to awaken his attention but he did not alter his position

Starting point is 11:59:31 marraville i said it is long since we've seen you you must return to windsor with me lady idris desires to see you you will not refuse her request come home with me he replied in a hollow voice why I deceive a helpless old man. Why talk hypocritically to one half crazed? Windsor's not my home. My true home I have found. The home that the creator has prepared for me. His accent of bitter scorn thrilled me. Do not tempt me to speak, he continued.

Starting point is 12:00:06 My words would scare you. In an universe of cowards, I dare think, among the churchyard tombs, among the victims of his merciless tyranny, I dare approach the supreme evil? How can he punish me? Let him bear his arm and transfix me with lightning.

Starting point is 12:00:24 This is also one of his attributes. And the old man laughed. He rose and I followed him through the rain to a neighbouring churchyard. He threw himself on the wet earth. Here they are! He cried, beautiful creatures,

Starting point is 12:00:38 breathing, speaking, loving creatures. She who by day and night cherished the age-worn lover of youth. They parts of my flesh, my children. Here they are. Call them, scream their names through the night. They will not answer. He clung to the little heaps that mark the graves. I ask but one thing. I do not fear his help, for I have it here. I do not desire his heaven. Let me but die and be laid beside them. Let me but when I lie dead. Feel my flesh as it molders, mingle with theirs. And he raised himself painfully and seized my arm.

Starting point is 12:01:18 Promise to bury me with them. So God help me and mine as I promise, I replied. On one condition, return with me to Windsor. To Windsor! He cried with a shriek. Never! From this place I never go. My bones, my flesh, I myself are already buried here,

Starting point is 12:01:38 and what you see of me is corrupted clay like them. I will lie here and cling here till rain and hail and lightning and storm ruining on me, make me one in substance with them below.' In a few words I must conclude this tragedy. I was obliged to leave London, and Adrian undertook to watch over him. The task was soon fulfilled. Age, grief, and inclement weather all united to hush his sorrows, and bring repose to his heart, whose beats were agony. He died embracing the sod, which was piled above his breast, when he was seen. He was placed beside the beings whom he regretted with such wild despair. I returned to Windsor at the

Starting point is 12:02:22 wish of Idris, who seemed to think that there was greater safety for her children at that spot, and because, once having taken on me the guardianship of the district, I would not desert it while an inhabitant survived. I went also to act in conformity with Adrian's plans, which was to congregate in masses what remained of the population, for he possessed the conviction that it was only through the benevolent and social virtues that any safety was to be hoped for the remnant of mankind. It was a melancholy thing to return to this spot so dear to us, as the scene of a happiness rarely before enjoyed, here to mark the extinction of our species, and trace the deep, unerascible footsteps of disease over the fertile and cherished soil. The aspect of the country had so

Starting point is 12:03:07 far changed, that it had been impossible to enter on the task of sowing seed and other autumnal labors. That season was now gone, and winter had set in with sudden and unusual severity. Alternate frosts and thaws succeeded to floods, rendered the country impassable. Heavy falls of snow gave an Arctic appearance to the scenery. The roofs of the houses peeped from the white mass. The lowly cot and stately mansion, alike deserted, were blocked up. their thresholds uncleared the windows were broken by the hail while the prevalence of a north-east wind rendered outdoor exertions extremely painful the altered state of society made these accidents of nature sources of real misery the luxury of command and the attentions of servitude were lost it is true that the necessaries of life were assembled in such quantities as to supply to superfluity the wants of the diminished population but still much labour was required to arrange these as it were raw materials and depressed by sickness and fearful of the future we had not energy to enter boldly and decidedly on any system i can speak for myself want of energy was not my failing the intense life that quickened my pulses and animated my frame

Starting point is 12:04:23 had the effect not of drawing me into the mazes of active life, but of exulting my lowliness, and of bestowing majestic proportions on insignificant objects. I could have lived the life of a peasant in the same way. My trifling occupations were swelled into important pursuits. My affections were impetuous and engrossing passions, and nature with all her changes was invested in divine attributes. The very spirit of Greek mythology inhabited my heart. I deify the uplands, glades and streams, I had sight of Proteus coming from the sea, and heard old Triton blow his wreathed horn. Strange that while the earth preserved her monotonous course, I dwelt with ever-renewing wonder on her antique laws, and now that with eccentric wheel she rushed into an untried path,

Starting point is 12:05:10 I should feel the spirit fade. I struggled with despondency and weariness, but like a fog they choked me. Perhaps, after the labours and stupendous excitement of the past summer, the calm of winter and the almost menial toils it brought with it, were by natural reaction doubly irksome. It was not the grasping passion of the preceding year, which gave life and individuality to each moment. It was not the aching pains induced by the distresses of the times. The utter inutility that had attended all my exertions

Starting point is 12:05:41 took from them their usual effects of exhilaration, and despair rendered abortive the balm of self-applaze. I longed to return to my old occupations, but of what use were they? To read were futile, to write vanity indeed. The earth, late-wide circus for the display of dignified exploits, vast theatre for a magnificent drama, now presented a vacant space, an empty stage.

Starting point is 12:06:08 For actor or a spectator there was no longer ought to say or hear. Our little town of Windsor, in which the survivors from the neighbouring counties were chiefly assembled, wore a melancholy aspect. Its streets were blocked up with snow. The few passengers seemed palsied and frozen by the ungenial visitation of winter. To escape these evils was the aim and scope of all our exertions. Families late devoted to exulting and refined pursuits,

Starting point is 12:06:36 rich, blooming and young, with diminished numbers and care-fraught hearts, huddled over a fire, grown selfish and grovelling through suffering. Without the aid of servants, it was necessary to discharge all household duties, hands unused to such labor must need the bread, or, in the absence of flour, the statesman, or perfumed courtier must undertake the butcher's office. Poor and rich were now equal, or rather the poor were the superior, since they entered on such tasks with alacrity and experience, while ignorance and aptitude and habits of repose rendered them fatiguing to the luxurious, galling to the proud, disgustable to all those minds bent on intellectual improvement,

Starting point is 12:07:15 held it in their dearest privilege to be exempt from attending to mere animal wants. but in every change goodness and affection can find field for exertion and display among some these changes produced a devotion and sacrifice of self at once graceful and heroic it was a sight for the lovers of the human race to enjoy to behold as in ancient times the patriarchal modes in which the variety of kindred in friendship fulfilled their duties in kindly offices youths nobles of the land performed for the sake of mother or sister the services of menials with amiable cheerfulness they went to the river to break the ice and draw water they assembled on foraging expeditions or axe in hand felled the trees for fuel the females received them on their return with the simple and affectionate welcome known before only to the lowly cottage a clean hearth and bright fire the supper ready cooked by beloved hands gratitude for the provision for to-morrow's meal strange enjoyments for the high-born english yet they were now their sole hard-earned and dearly prized luxuries none was more conspicuous for this graceful submission to circumstances noble humility and ingenious fancy to adorn such acts with romantic colouring than our own clara she saw my despondency and the aching cares of idris her perpetual study was to relieve us from labour and to spread ease and even elegance over our altered mode of life We still had some attendance spared by disease and warmly attached to us.

Starting point is 12:08:52 But Clara was jealous of their services. She would be sole handmaid of Idris, sole minister to the wants of her little cousins. Nothing gave her so much pleasure as are employing her in this way. She went beyond our desires, earnest, diligent, and unwearied. Abra was ready air, we called her name. And though we called another, Abra came. It was my task each day to visit the very very very very. various families assembled in our town, and when the weather permitted, I was glad to prolong my

Starting point is 12:09:22 ride and to muse in solitude over every changeful appearance of our destiny, endeavouring to gather lessons for the future from the experience in the past. The impatience with which, while in society, the ills that afflicted my species inspired me, were softened by loneliness, when individual suffering was merged in the general calamity, strange to say, less afflicting to contemplate. Thus, often, pushing my way with difficulty through the narrow snow-block town, I crossed the bridge and passed through Eden.

Starting point is 12:09:53 No youthful congregation of gallant-hearted boys thronged the portal of the college. Sad silence pervaded the busy schoolroom and noisy playground. I extended my ride towards Salt Hill, on every side impeded by the snow. Were those the fertile fields I loved? Was that the interchange of general?

Starting point is 12:10:13 upland and cultivated dale once covered with waving corn, diversified by stately trees, watered by the meandering Thames? One street of white covered it, while bitter recollection told me that cold as the winter cloth to earth were the hearts of the inhabitants. I met troops of horses, herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, wandering at will, here throwing down a hay-rick and nestling from cold in its heart, which afforded them shelter and food, they're having taken in possession of a vacant cottage. Once on a frosty day, pushed on by restless, unsatisfying reflections, I sought a favorite haunt, a little wood not far distant from Salt Hill.

Starting point is 12:10:55 A bubbling spring prattles over stones on one side, and a plantation of a few elms and beaches hardly deserve, and yet continue the name of wood. This spot had for me peculiar charms. It had been a favorite resort of Adrian. It was secluded, and he often did. said that in boyhood his happiest hours were spent here. Having escaped the stately bondage of his mother, he sat on the rough-hewn steps that led to the spring, now reading a favorite book, now musing with speculation beyond its years, on the still unraveled skein of morals or metaphysics.

Starting point is 12:11:29 A melancholy foreboding assured me that I should never see this place more. So, with careful thought, I noted each tree, every winding of the streamlet and irregularity of the soil, that I might better call up its idea in absence. A robin red breast dropped from the frosty branches of the trees, upon the conchaled ribulet. Its panting breast and half-closed eyes shewed that it was dying. A hawk appeared in the air. Sudden fear seized the little creature. It exerted its last strength, throwing itself on its back, raising its talons an impotent defense against its powerful enemy. I took it up and placed it in my breast. I fed it with a few crumbs from my biscuit. By degrees it revived, its warm, fluttering heart beat against me. I cannot tell why I detail

Starting point is 12:12:20 this trifling incident, but the scene is still before me. The snow-clad fields seen through the silver trunks of the beaches. The brook and days of happiness alive with sparkling waters now choked by ice. The leafless trees fantastically dressed in hoar frost. The shapes of summer leaves imaged by winter's frozen hand on the hard ground. The dusky sky, drear, cold, and unbroken silence. While close in my bosom, my feathered nursling lay warm and safe, speaking its content with a light chirp, painful recollections thronged, stirring my brain with wild commotion. Cold and death-like as the snowy fields was all earth. Misery-stricken the lifetide of the inhabitants. Why should I oppose the cataract of destruction that swept us away? Why string my nerves and renew my wearied efforts?

Starting point is 12:13:16 Ah, why? But that firm courage and cheerful exertions might shelter the dear mate, whom I chose in the spring of my life. Though the throbbings of my heart be replete with pain, though my hopes for the future are chill, still while your dear hand, my gentless love, can repose in peace on that heart, and while you derive from its fostering care, comfort and hope, my struggles shall not cease. I will not call myself altogether vanquished. One fine February day, when the sun had reassumed some of its genial power, I walked in the forest with my family. It was one of those lovely winter days which assert the capacity of nature to bestow beauty unbeariness. The leafless trees spread their fibrous branches against the pure sky, their intricate, imperish.

Starting point is 12:14:06 The furvious tracery resembled delicate seaweed. The deer were turning up the snow in search of the hidden grass. The white was made intensely dazzling by the sun, and trunks of trees rendered more conspicuous by the loss of prepondering foliage, gathered around like the labyrinthine columns of a vast temple. It was impossible not to receive pleasure from the sight of these things. Our children freed from the bondage of winter, bounded before us, pursuing the deer arousing the pheasants and partridges from the,

Starting point is 12:14:36 their coverts. Idris lent to my arm. Her sadness yielded to the present sense of pleasure. We met other families on the long walk, enjoying like ourselves, the return of the genial season. At once I seemed to awake. I cast off the clinging sloth of the past months. Earth assumed a new appearance, and my view of the future was suddenly made clear. I exclaimed, I have now found out the secret. What secret? In answer to this question, I described our gloomy went to life, our sordid cares, our menial labors. This northern country, I said, is no place for our diminished race. When mankind were few, it was not here that they battled with the powerful agents of nature,

Starting point is 12:15:16 and were enabled to cover the globe with offspring? We must seek some natural paradise, some garden of the earth, where our simple wants may be easily supplied, and the enjoyment of a delicious climate to compensate for the social pleasures we have lost. If we survive this coming summer, I will not spend the ensuing winter in England. neither I nor any of us. I spoke without much heed, and the very conclusion of what I said brought with it other thoughts.

Starting point is 12:15:43 Should we, any of us, survive the coming summer? I saw the brow of edge was clouded. I again felt that we were in chain to the car of fate over whose courses we had no control. We could no longer say this we will do, and this we will leave undone. A mightier power than the human was at hand to destroy our plans or to achieve the work we avoided.

Starting point is 12:16:03 It were madness to calculate upon another winter. This was our last. The coming summer was the extreme end of our vista. And when we arrived there, instead of a continuation of the long road, a gulf yawned, into which we must of force be precipitated, the last blessing of humanity was rested from us. We might no longer hope. Can the madman, as he clanks his chains, hope?

Starting point is 12:16:29 Can the wretch led to the scaffold, who, when he lays his head, on the block marks the double shadow of himself and the executioner, whose uplifted arm bears the axe, hope? Can the shipwrecked mariner who spent was swimming, hears close behind the splashing waters divided by a shark which pursues him through the Atlantic, hope? Such hope is theirs we also may entertain. Old fable tells us that this gentle spirit sprung from the box of Pandora, else crammed with evils. But these were unseen and not. null while all admired the inspiriting loveliness of young hope. Each man's heart became her home. She was enthroned sovereign of our lives. Here and hereafter she was deified in worship,

Starting point is 12:17:15 declared incorruptible and everlasting. But like all other gifts of the Creator to man, she is mortal. Her life has attained its last hour. We have watched over her, nursed her flickering existence. Now she has fallen at once from youth to decrepit. from health to immedicinable disease even as we spend ourselves in struggles for her recovery she dies

Starting point is 12:17:41 to all the nations the voice goes forth hope is dead we are but mourners in the funeral train and what immortal essence of perishable creation will refuse to make one in the sad procession that attends to its grave the dead comforter of humanity

Starting point is 12:17:57 does not the sun call in his light and day like a thin exhalation melt away both wrapping up their beams and clouds to be themselves close mourners at this obsequent end of chapter nine volume three chapter one of the last man this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot o r g recording by madera the last man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 3, Chapter 1. Hear you not the rushing sound of the coming tempest? Do you not behold the clouds open and destruction lurid and dire pour down upon the blasted earth? See you not the thunderboat fall and are deafened by the shout of heaven that follows its descent?

Starting point is 12:19:08 Feel you not the earth quake and open with agonizing groans while the earth. the air is pregnant with shrieks and wailings, all announcing the last days of man? No, none of these things accompanied our fall. The balmy air of spring breathed from nature's ambrosial home, invested the lovely earth which wakened as a young mother about to lead forth in pride her beauteous offspring to meet their sire who had been long absent. The buds decked the trees, the flowers adorned the land, the dark branches swollen with seasonable juices expanded into leaves and the variegated foliage of spring bending and singing in the breeze rejoiced in the genial warmth of the unclouded

Starting point is 12:19:57 the brooks flowed murmuring the sea was waveless and the promontories that overhung it were reflected in the placid waters birds awoke in the woods while abundant food for man and beast sprung up from the dark ground. Where was pain and evil? Not in the calm air or weltering ocean. Not in the woods or fertile fields, nor among the birds that made the woods resonant with song, nor the animals that in the midst of plenty basked in the sunshine. Our enemy, like the calamity of Homer, trod our hearts, and no sound was echoed from her steps. With ills the land is rife, With ills the sea, Diseases haunt our frail humanity. Through noon, through night, and casual wing they glide, silent, a voice the power all-wise denied. Once man was a favourite of the Creator, as the royal psalmist sang, God had made him a little lower than the angels and had crowned.

Starting point is 12:21:11 him with glory and honor. God made him to have dominion over the works of his hands and put all things under his feet. Once it was so, now is man lord of the creation? Look at him. Ha! I see plague! She has invested his form, is incarnate in his flesh, has entwined herself with his being and blinds his heaven-seeking eyes. Lie down, oh man, on the flower of. strown earth, give up all claim to your inheritance. All you can ever possess of it is the small cell which the dead require. Plague is the companion of spring, of sunshine and plenty. We no longer struggle with her. We have forgotten what we did when she was not. Of old navies used to stem the giant ocean waves betwixt Indus in the pole for slight articles of luxury. Men made perilous

Starting point is 12:22:11 journeys to possess themselves of earth's splendid trifles, gems, and gold. Human labor was wasted. Human life set at naught. Now, life is all that we covet. That this automation of flesh should with joints and springs in order perform its functions, that this dwelling of the soul should be capable of containing its dweller. Our minds late spread abroad Through countless spheres And endless combinations of thought Now retrenched themselves behind this wall of flesh

Starting point is 12:22:47 Eager to preserve its well-being only We were surely sufficiently degraded At first the increase of sickness in spring brought increase of toil to such of us Who as yet spared to life bestowed our time and thoughts on our fellow creatures We nerved ourselves to the task. In the midst of despair we performed the tasks of hope.

Starting point is 12:23:13 We went out with the resolution of disputing with our foe. We aided the sick and comforted the sorrowing, turning from the multitudinous dead to the rare survivors, with an energy of desire that bore the resemblance of power, we bade them live. Plague sat paramount the while and laughed us to scorn. Have any. of you, my readers, observe the ruins of an ant hill immediately after its destruction.

Starting point is 12:23:42 At first, it appears entirely deserted of its former inhabitants. In a little time, you see an ant struggling through the upturned mold. They reappear by twos and threes, running hither and tither in search of their lost companions. Such were we upon earth, wondering aghast of the effects of pestilence. Our empty habitations remained, but the dwellers were gathered to the shades of the tomb. As the rules of order

Starting point is 12:24:13 and pressure of laws were lost, some began with hesitation and wonder to transgress the accustomed uses of society. Pallaces were deserted and the poor man dared, at length, unreproved, intrude into the splendid apartments,

Starting point is 12:24:29 whose very furniture and decorations were an unknown world to him. it was found that though at first the stop put to all circulation of property had reduced those before supported by the factitious wants of society to sudden and hideous poverty yet when the boundaries of private possession were thrown down the products of human labour at present existing were more far more than the thin generation could possibly consume to some among the poor this was matter of exultation we were all equal now magnificent dwellings luxurious carpets and beds of down were afforded to all carriages and horses gardens pictures statues and princely libraries there were enough of these even to superfluity and there was nothing to prevent each from assuming possession of his share we were all equal now but near at hand was an equality still more levelling a state where beauty and strength and wisdom would be as a state where beauty and strength and wisdom would be as a vain as riches and birth. The grave yawned beneath us all, and its prospect prevented any of us from enjoying the ease in plenty which in so awful a manner was presented to us. Still the bloom did

Starting point is 12:25:48 not fade on the cheeks of my babes, and Clara sprung up in years in growth unsullied by disease. We had no reason to think the sight of Windsor Castle peculiarly healthy, for many other families had expired beneath its roof. We lived, therefore, without any particular precaution, but we lived, it seemed, in safety. If Idris became thin and pale, it was anxiety that occasioned the change, an anxiety I could in no way alleviate.

Starting point is 12:26:21 She never complained, but sleep and appetite fled from her. A slow fever preyed on her veins, her color was hectic, and she often wept in secret. gloomy prognostications, care, and agonizing dread ate up the principle of life within her. I could not fail to perceive this change. I often wished that I had permitted her to take her own course and engage herself in such labors for the welfare of others as might have distracted her thoughts, but it was too late now. Besides that, with the nearly extinct race of man, all our toils grew near a conclusion.

Starting point is 12:27:05 She was too weak. Consumption, if so it might be called, or rather the overactive life within her, which, as with Adrian, spent the vital oil in the early morning hours, deprived her limbs of strength. At night, when she could leave me unperceived, she wandered through the house or hung over the couch, over the couches of her children, and in the daytime would sink into a perturbed sleep, while her murmurs and starts betray the unquiet dreams that bexed her. As this state of wretchedness became more confirmed, and, in spite of her endeavors at concealment, more apparent, I strove, though vainly, to awaken in her courage and hope. I could not wonder at the vehemence of her care.

Starting point is 12:27:49 Her very soul was tenderness. She trusted, indeed, that she should not outlive. me if I became the prey of the vast calamity, and this thought sometimes relieved her. We had for many years trod the highway of life hand in hand, and still thus linked we might step within the shades of death. But her children, her lovely, playful, animated children, being sprung from her own dear side, portions of her own being, depositories of our loves. even if we died, it would be comfort to know that they ran man's accustomed course.

Starting point is 12:28:29 But it would not be so. Young and blooming as they were, they would die. And from the hopes of maturity, from the proud name of a tamed manhood, they were cut off forever. Often with maternal affection she had figured their merits and talents exerted on life's wide stage. Alas, for these latter days,

Starting point is 12:28:57 the world had grown old, and all its inmates partook of the decrepitude. Why talk of infancy, manhood, and old age? We all stood equal sharers of the last throes of time-worn nature, arrived at the same point of the world's age. There was no difference in us. The name of parent and child had lost their meaning, young boys and girls will level now with men this was all true but it was not less agonizing to take the admonition home where could we turn and not find a desolation pregnant with the dire lesson of example

Starting point is 12:29:38 the fields had been left uncultivated weeds and gaudy flowers sprung up or where a few wheat-fields shewed signs of the living hopes of the husbandman the work had been left half-way the ploughman had died beside the plough. The horses had deserted the furrow, and no seedsman had approached the dead. The cattle unattended wandered over the fields and through the lanes, the tame inhabitants of the poultry-yard, balked of their daily food, had become wild. Young lambs were dropped in flower gardens, and the cows stalled in the hall of pleasure. Sically and few the country people neither went out to sow nor reap, but sauntered about the meadows, or lay under the hedges when the inclement sky did not drive them to take shelter under the nearest. roof. Many of those who remained secluded themselves. Some had laid up stores which would prevent the

Starting point is 12:30:28 necessity of leaving their homes. Some deserted wife and child, then imagined that they secured their safety and utter solitude. Such had been Rylans' plan, and he was discovered dead and half-devoured by insects, in a house many miles from any other, with piles of food laid up in useless superfluity. others made long journeys to unite themselves with those they loved and arrived to find them dead london did not contain above a thousand inhabitants and this number was continually diminishing most of them were country people come up for the sake of change the londoners had sought the country the busy eastern part of the town was silent or at most you saw only where half from cupidity half from curiosity the warehouses had been more ransacked than pillaged. Bales of rich India goods, shawls of price, jewels and spices, unpacked, strewed the floors. In some places the possessor had, to the last, kept watch on his store and died before the bard gates. The massy portals of the churches swung creaking on their hinges,

Starting point is 12:31:41 and some few lay dead on the pavement. The wretched female, loveless victim of vulgar brutality, had wandered to the toilet of high-born beauty and arraying herself in the garb of splendor had died before the mirror which reflected to herself alone her altered appearance women whose delicate feet had seldom touched the earth and their luxury had fled in fright and horror from their homes till losing themselves in the squalid streets of the metropolis they had died on the threshold of poverty the heart sickened at the variety of misery presented and when i saw a specimen of this gloomy change my soul ached with the fear of what might before my beloved idress and my babes Were they surviving Adrian and myself to find themselves protectorless in the world? As yet the mine alone had suffered. Could I forever put off the time when the delicate frame and shrinking nerves of my child of prosperity, the nursling of rank and wealth who was my companion should be invaded by famine, hardship, and disease?

Starting point is 12:32:52 Better die at once. Better plunge a poignard in her bosom, still untouched by drear adversity, and then again sheathe it in my own. But no, in times of misery we must fight against our destinies and strive not to be overcome by them. I would not yield, but to the last gasp resolutely defended my dear ones against sorrow and pain.

Starting point is 12:33:16 And if I were vanquished at last, it should not be ingloriously. I stood at the gap, resisting the enemy, the impelpable, invisible foe, who had so long besieged us, as yet he had made no breach. It must be by care that he should not,

Starting point is 12:33:35 secretly undermining, burst up within the very threshold of the temple of love at whose altar I daily sacrificed. The hunger of death was now stung more sharply by the diminution of his food. Or was it that before the survivors being many, the dead were less eagerly counted? Now each life was a gem, each human breathing form of, far, oh, far more worth than subtlest imagery of sculpted stone. And the daily, nay, hourly decrease visible in our numbers, visited the heart with sickening misery. This summer extinguished

Starting point is 12:34:14 our hopes. The vessel of society was wrecked, and the shattered raft which carried the few survivors over the sea of misery was riven and tempest tossed. Man existed by twos and threes. man, the individual who might sleep and wake and perform the animal functions, but man in himself weak yet more powerful in congregated numbers than wind or ocean, man, the queller of the elements, the lord of created nature, the peer of demigods, existed no longer. Farewell to the patriotic scene, to the love of liberty and well-earned mead of virtuous aspiration. Farewell to crowded Senate, vocal with the councils of the wise,

Starting point is 12:35:02 whose laws were keener than the sword-blade tempered at Damascus. Farewell to kingly pomp and warlike pageantry. The crowns are in the dust and the wearers are in their graves. Farewell to the desire of rule and the hope of victory, to high-vaulting ambition, to the appetite for praise and the craving for the suffrage of their fellows. The nations are no longer. No Senate sits in counsel for the dead, no sign of a time-honoured dynasty pants to rule over the inhabitants of a charnel house.

Starting point is 12:35:38 The general's hand is cold, and the soldier has his untimely grave dug in his native fields, unhonored, though in youth. The marketplace is empty. The candidate for popular favor finds none whom he can represent. The chambers of painted state farewell To midnight revelry And the panting emulation of beauty To costly dress and birthday shoe To title and the gilded coronet farewell Farewell to the giant powers of man

Starting point is 12:36:15 To knowledge that could pilot the deep drawing bark Through the opposing waters of shoreless ocean To science that directed the same silken balloon through the pathless air, to the power that could put a barrier to mighty waters and set in motion wheels and beams and vast machinery that could divide rocks of granite or marble and make the mountains plain. Farewell to the arts, to eloquence, which is to the human mind as the winds to the sea, stirring and then allaying it. Farewell to poetry and deep philosophy, for man's imagination is cold, and his inquiring mind can no longer expatiate

Starting point is 12:36:57 on the wonders of life, for there is no work, no device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, wither thou goest, to the graceful building which in its perfect proportion transcended the rude forms of nature, the fretted Gothic and massy Saracenic pile, to the stupendous arch and glorious dome, the fluted column with its capital, Corinthia, and. ionic or doric. The peristyle and fair and tablature, whose harmony or form as to the eye as musical concord to the ear, farewell to sculpture, where the pure marble mocks human flesh and in the plastic expression of the cold excellencies of the human shape shines forth the god. Farewell to painting, the high-wrought sentiment and deep knowledge of the artist's mind and

Starting point is 12:37:45 pictured canvas, to paradicycle scenes where the stamped form of tempest and wildest uproar of universal nature and caged in the narrow frame. Oh, farewell, farewell to music and the sound of song, to the marriage of instruments where the concord of soft and harsh unites in sweet harmony, and gives wings to the panting listeners whereby to climb heaven and learn the hidden pleasures of the Eternals. Farewell to the well-trod stage. A truer tragedy is enacted on the world's ample scene that puts to shame mimic grief.

Starting point is 12:38:24 To high-bred comedy and the low buffoon farewell, man may laugh no more. Alas, to enumerate the adornments of humanity shoes by what we have lost, how supremely great man was. It is all over now. He is solitary. Like our first parents expelled from paradise,

Starting point is 12:38:50 he looks back towards the scene he has quitted. The high walls of the tomb and the flaming sword of plague lie between it and him. Like to our first parents the whole earth is before him. A wide desert. Unsupported and weak let him wander through the fields where the unreaped corn stands in barrens, in plenty, through copses planted by his fathers, through towns built for his use.

Starting point is 12:39:17 Fosterity is no more. Fame and ambition and love are words void of meaning. Even as the cattle that grazes in the field, do thou, oh deserted one, lie down at evening-tide, unknowing of the past, careless of the future, for from such fond ignorance alone canst thou hope for ease. Joy paints its own colors every act and thought. The happy do not feel poverty, for delight is as a gold-tissued robe, and crowns them with priceless gems. Enjoyment plays the cook to their homely fare and mingles intoxication with their simple drink. Joy strews the hard couch with roses and makes labor ease. Sorrow doubles the bird.

Starting point is 12:40:09 to the bent down back plants thorns in the unyielding pillow mingles gall with water adds saltness to their bitter bread clothing them in rags and strewing ashes on their bare heads to our irredeemable distress every small and pelting inconvenience came with added force we had strung our frames to endure the atlian weight thrown on us we sank beneath the added feather chanced through on us The grasshopper was a burthen. Many of the survivors had been bred in luxury. Their servants were gone. Their powers of command vanished like unreal shadows. The poor even suffered various privations. And the idea of another winter like the last brought a fright to our minds.

Starting point is 12:40:59 Was it not enough that we must die, but toil must be added? Must we prepare our funeral repast with labor and with unseemly drudgery, heap fuel on our deserted hearts? Must we with servile hands fabricate the garment soon to be our shroud? Not so. We are presently to die. Let us then enjoy to its full relish

Starting point is 12:41:23 the remnant of our lives, sordid care of hunt. Mean your labours and pains slight in themselves, but too gigantic for our exhausted strength shall make no part of our ephemeral existences. In the beginning of time, when as now man lived by families and not by tribes or nations they were placed in a genial climb where earth fed them untilled in the balmy air and wrapped their reposing limbs with warmth more pleasant than beds of down the south is the native place of the human race the land of fruits more grateful to man than the hard-earned saris of the north of trees whose boughs are as a palace roof of couches of roses and of the thirst appeasing grape we need not

Starting point is 12:42:07 their fear cold and hunger. Look at England. The grass shoots up high in the meadows, but they are dank and cold, unfit bed for us. Corn, we have none, and the crude fruits cannot support us. We must seek firing in the bowels of the earth, or the unkind atmosphere will fill us with rooms and aches. The labour of hundreds of thousands alone could make this inclement nook-fit habitation for one man. To the south, then. To the science. where nature is kind where Jove has showered forth the contents of Amalthea's horn and earth is garden. England late birthplace of excellence and school of the wise. Thy children are gone, thy glory faded. Thou, England, wert the triumph of man. Small favor was shown thee by thy creator,

Starting point is 12:43:02 thou isle of the north. A ragged canvas naturally, painted. by man with alien colors, but the hues he gave are faded, never more to be renewed. So we must leave thee, thou marvel of the world. We must bid farewell to thy clouds and cold and scarcity forever. Thy manly hearts are still, thy tale of power and liberty at its close. Beareth to man, O little isle, the ocean waves will buffet thee. and the raven flap his wings over thee thy soil will be birthplace of weeds thy sky will canopy barrenness it was not for the rose of persia thou wert famous nor the banana of the east nor for the spicy gales of india nor the sugar-groves of america not for thy vines nor thy double harvests nor for thy vernal heirs nor solicitial son but for thy children their unwearied industry and lofty aspiration they are gone and thou goest with them the oft-trodden path that leads to oblivion farewell sad isle farewell thy fatal

Starting point is 12:44:28 glory is summed, cast up, and cancelled in this story. End of chapter one. Volume 2, Chapter 3 of The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Christine Blashford, www.sidepodcast.com. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Starting point is 12:45:06 Volume 3, Chapter 2. In the autumn of this year, 2006, the spirit of emigration crept in among the few survivors, who, congregating from various parts of England, met in London. This spirit existed as a breath, a wish, a far-off thought, until communicated to Adrian, who imbibed it with ardour and instantly engaged himself in plans for its execution. The fear of immediate death vanished with the heats of September. Another winter was before us, and we might elect our mode of passing it to the best advantage. Perhaps in rational philosophy, none could be better chosen than this scheme of

Starting point is 12:45:38 migration which would draw us from the immediate scene of our woe and leading us through pleasant and picturesque countries amused for a time our despair the idea once broached all were impatient to put it in execution we were still at windsor our renewed hopes medicine the anguish we had suffered from the late tragedies the death of many of our inmates had weaned us from the fond idea that windsor castle was a spot sacred from the plague but our lease of life was renewed for some months and even idris lifted her head as a lily after a storm when a last sunbeam tinges its silver cup just at this time adrian came down to us his ego looks showed us that he was full of some scheme he hastened to take me aside and disclosed to me with rapidity his plan of emigration from england to leave england for ever to turn from its polluted fields and graves and placing the sea between us to quit it as a sailor quits the rock on which he has been wrecked when the saving ship rides by such was his plan to leave the country of our fathers made wholly by their graves we could not feel even as a voluntary exile of old who might for pleasure or convenience forsake his native soil though thousands of miles might divide him england was still a part of him as he of her he heard of the passing events of the day he knew that if he returned and resumed his place in society the entrance was still open and it required but the will to surround himself at once with the associations and habits of boyhood not so with us the remnant we left none to represent us none to re-people the desert land and the name of England died when we left her, in vagabond pursuit of dreadful safety. Yet let us go, England is in her shroud, we may not enchain ourselves to a corpse, let us go, the world is our country now, and we will choose for our residence its most fertile spot? Shall we, in these desert halls,

Starting point is 12:47:14 under this wintry sky, sit with closed eyes and folded hands, expecting death? Let us rather go out to meet it gallantly, or, perhaps, for all this pendulous orb, this fair gem in the sky's deadum, is not surely plague-stricken, perhaps in some secluded nook amidsternal spring and waving trees and purling streams we may find life. The world is vast, and England, though her many fields and widespread woods seem interminable, is but a small part of her. At the close of a day's march over high mountains and through snowy valleys, we may come upon health, and, committing our loved ones to its charge, replant the uprooted tree of humanity, and send to late posterity the tale of the anti-pestellential race, the heroes and sages of the lost state of things.

Starting point is 12:47:53 Hope beckons and sorrow urges us, the heart beats high with expectation, and this eager desire of change must be an omen of success oh come farewell to the dead farewell to the tombs of those we loved farewell to giant london and the placid thames and mountain or fair district birthplace of the wise and good to windsor forest and its antique castle farewell themes for story alone are they we must live elsewhere such were in part the arguments of adrian uttered with enthusiasm and unanswerable rapidity something more was in his heart to which he dared not give words he felt that the end of time was come he knew that one by one we should dwindle into nothingness it was not advisable to wait this sad consummation in our native country but travelling would give us out object for each day that would distract our thoughts from the swift approaching end of things if we went to italy to sacred and eternal rome we might with greater patience submit to the decree which had laid her mighty towers low we might lose our selfish grief in the sublime aspect of its desolation all this was in the mind of adrian but he thought of my children and instead of communicating to me these resources of despair he called up the image of health and life to be found where we knew not when we knew not but if never to be found for ever and forever to be sought he won me over to his party heart and soul it devolved on me to disclose our plan to idris the images of health and hope which i presented to her made her with a smile consent with a smile she agreed to leave her country from which she had never before been absent and the spot she had inhabited from infancy the forest and its mighty trees the woodland paths and green recesses where she had played in childhood and had lived so happily through youth she would leave them without regret for she hoped to purchase thus the last lives of her children. They were her life, dearer than a spot consecrated to love, dearer than

Starting point is 12:49:33 all else the earth contained. The boys heard with childish glee of our removal, Clara asked if we were to go to Athens. It is possible, I replied, and her countenance became radiant with pleasure. There she would behold the tomb of her parents, and the territory filled with recollections of her father's glory. In silence but without respite she had brooded over these scenes. It was the recollection of them that had turned her infant gaiety to seriousness, and had impressed her with high and restless thoughts. There were many dear friends whom we must not leave behind, humble though they were. There was the spirited and obedience deed which Lord Raymond had given his daughter.

Starting point is 12:50:05 There was Alfred's dog and a pet eagle, whose sight was dimmed through age. But this catalogue of favourites to be taken with us could not be made without grief to think of our heavy losses, and a deep sigh for the many things we must leave behind. The tears rushed into the eyes of Idris, while Alfred and Evelyn brought now a favourite rose-tree, now a marble vase beautifully carved, insisting that these must go, and exclaiming on the pity that we could not take the castle in the forest, the deer and the birds, and all accustomed and cherished objects along with us. Fond and foolish ones, I said,

Starting point is 12:50:34 we have lost for ever treasures far more precious than these, and we desert them to preserve treasures to which, in comparison, they are nothing. Let us not for a moment forget our object and our hope, and they will form a resistless mound to stop the overflowing of our regret for trifles. The children were easily distracted, and again returned to their prospect of future amusement. Idris had disappeared. She had gone to hide her weakness, escaping from the castle she had descended to the little park and sought solitude that she might there indulge her tears i found her clinging round an old oak pressing its rough trunk with her rosy-eight lips as her tears fell plentiously and her sobs and broken exclamations could not be suppressed

Starting point is 12:51:09 with surpassing grief i beheld this loved one of my heart thus lost in sorrow i drew her towards me and as she felt my kisses on her eyelids as she felt my arms press her she revived to the knowledge of what remained her you are very kind not to reproach me she said i weep and a bitter pang of intolerable sorrow tears my heart and yet i am happy mothers lament their children wives lose their husbands while you and my children are left to me yes i am happy most happy that i can weep thus for imaginary sorrows and that the slight loss of my adored country is not dwindled and annihilated in mightier misery take me where you will where you and my children are there shall be windsor and every country will be england to me let these tears flow not for myself happy and ungrateful as i am but for the dead world for our lost country for all of love and life and joy now choked in the dusty chambers of death she spoke quickly as if to convince herself she turned her eyes from the trees and forest paths she loved she hid her face in my bosom and we yes my masculine firmness dissolved we we we wept together consolatory tears and then calm nay almost cheerful we returned to the castle the first cold weather of an english october made us hasten our preparations i persuaded idris to go up to london where she might better attend to necessary arrangements i did not tell her that to spare her the pang of parting from inanimate objects now the only things left i had resolved that we should none of us return to windsor for the last time we looked on the wide extent of country visible from the terrace and saw the last rays of the sun tinged the dark masses of wood variegated by autumnal tints the uncultivated fields and smokeless cottages lay in shadow below the thames wound through the wide plain and the venerable pile of eton college stood in dark relief a prominent object the coring of the myriad rooks which inhabited the trees of the little park as in column or thick wedge they speeded to their nests disturbed the silence of the evening nature was the same as when she was the kind mother of the human race now childless and forlorn her fertility was a mockery her loveliness a mask for deformity why should the breeze gently stare the trees man felt not its refreshment why did dark night adorn herself with stars man saw them not why are their fruits or flowers or streams man is not here to enjoy them

Starting point is 12:53:13 idris stood beside me her dear hand locked in mine her face was radiant with a smile the sun is alone she said but we are not a strange star my lionel ruled our birth sadly and with dismay we may look upon the annihilation of man but we remain for each other did i ever in the wide world seek other than thee and since in the wide world thou remainest why should i complain thou and nature are still true to me beneath the shades of night and through the day whose garish light displays our solitude thou wilt still be at my side and even windsor will not be regretted i had chosen night-time for our journey to london that the change and desolation of the country might be the less observable our only surviving servant drove us we passed down the steep hill and entered the dusky avenue of the long walk at times like these minute circumstances assumed giant and majestic proportions the very swinging open of the white gate that admitted us into the forest arrested my thoughts as matter of interest it was an everyday act never to occur again the setting crescent of the moon glittered through the massy trees to our right and when we entered the park we scared a troop of deer that fled bounding away in the forest shades our two boys quietly slept once before our road turned from the view i looked back on the castle its windows glistened in the moonshine and its heavy outline lay in a dark mass against the sky the trees near us waved a solemn dirge to the midnight breeze idris leaned back in the carriage her two hands pressed mine her countenance was placid she seemed to lose the sense of what she now left in the memory of what she still possessed my thoughts were sad and solemn yet not of unmingled pain the very excess of our misery carried a relief with it giving sublimity and elevation to sorrow i felt that i carried with me those i best loved i was pleased after a long separation to rejoin adrian never again to part i felt that i quitted what i loved not what loved me the castle walls and long familiar trees did not hear the parting sound of our carriage-wheels with regret and while i felt idris to be near and heard the regular breathing of my children i could not be unhappy clara was greatly ming with streaming eyes suppressing her sobs she leaned from the window watching the last glimpse of her native windsor adrian welcomed us on our arrival he was all animation you could no longer trace in his look of health the suffering valitudinarian from his smile and sprightly tones you could not guess that he was about to lead forth from their native country the numbered remnant of the english nation

Starting point is 12:55:25 into the tenantless realms of the south there to die one by one till the last man should remain in the voiceless empty world adrian was impatient for our departure and had advanced far in his preparation His wisdom guided all. His care was the soul to move the luckless crowd who relied wholly on him. It was useless to provide many things, for we should find abundant provision in every town. It was Adrian's wish to prevent all labour to bestow a festive appearance on this funeral train. Our numbers amounted to not quite two thousand persons. These were not all assembled in London, but each day witnessed the arrival of fresh numbers, and those who resided in the neighbouring towns had received orders to assemble at one place on the 20th of November. Carriages and horses were provided for all, captains and under-offices chosen, and the whole

Starting point is 12:56:07 assemblage wisely organised. All obeyed the Lord Protector of Dying England, all looked up to him. His council was chosen, it consisted of about fifty persons. Distinction and station were not the qualifications of their election. We had no station among us, but that which benevolence and prudence gave, no distinction save between the living and the dead. Although we were anxious to leave England before the depth of winter, yet we were detained, small parties had been dispatched to various parts of England in search of stragglers.

Starting point is 12:56:34 We would not go until we had assured ourselves that in all human probability we did not leave behind a single human being. On our arrival in London we found that the aged countess of Windsor was residing with her son in the palace of the protectorate. We repaired to her accustomed abode near Hyde Park. Idris now for the first time for many years saw her mother, anxious to assure herself that the childishness of old age did not mingle with unforgotten pride, to make this high-born dame still so inveterate against me. age and care had furrowed her cheeks and bent her form but her eye was still bright her manners authoritative and unchanged she received her daughter coldly but displayed more feeling as she folded her grandchildren in her arms it is our nature to wish to continue our systems and thoughts to posterity through our own offspring the countess had failed in this design with regard to her children perhaps she hoped to find the next remove in birth more tractable

Starting point is 12:57:22 once idris named me casually a frown a convulsive gesture of anger shook her mother and with voice trembling with hate she said i am of little worth in this world the young are impatient to push the old off the scene but idris if you do not wish to see your mother expire at your feet never again name that person to me all else i can bear and now i am resigned to the destruction of my cherished hopes but it is too much to require that i should love the instrument that providence gifted with murderous properties for my destruction this was a strange speech now that on the empty stage each might play his part without impediment from the other but the haughty ex-queen queen thought as octavius caesar and mark antony we could not stall together in the whole world the period of our departure was fixed for the twenty-fifth of november the weather was temperate soft rains fell at night and by day the wintry sun shone out our numbers were to move forward in separate parties and to go by different routes all to unite at last at paris adrian and his division consisting in all of five hundred persons were to take the direction of dover and cal on the twentieth of november adrian and i rode for the last time through the streets of london they were grass-grown and desert the open doors of the empty mansions creaked upon their hinges rank herbage and deforming dirt had swiftly accumulated on the steps of the houses the voiceless steeples of the churches pierced the smokeless air the churches were open but no prayer was offered at the altars mildew and damp had already defaced their ornaments birds and tame animals now homeless had built nests and made their lairs in consecrated in consulcated spots we passed st paul's london which had extended so far in suburbs in all direction had been somewhat deserted in the midst and much of what had in former days obscured this vast building was removed its ponderous mass blackened stone and high dome made it look not like a temple but a tomb we thought above the portico was engraved the hick jasted of england we passed on eastwards engaged in such solemn talk as the times inspired no human step was heard nor human form discerned troops of dogs deserted of their masters past us

Starting point is 12:59:14 and now and then a horse unbridled and unsaddled trotted towards us and tried to attract the attention of those which we rode as if to allure them to seek like liberty an unwieldy ox who had fed in an abandoned granary suddenly load and shewed his shapeless form in the narrow doorway everything was desert but nothing was in ruin and this medley of undamaged buildings and luxurious accommodation in trim and fresh youth was contrasted with the lonely silence of the unpeopled streets night closed in and it began to rain we were about to return homewards when a voice a human voice strange now to hear attracted our attention it was a child singing a merry lightsome air there was no other sound we had traversed london from hyde park even to where we now were in the minories and had met no person heard no voice nor footstep the singing was interrupted by laughing and talking never was merry ditty so sadly timed never laughter more akin to tears the door of the house from which these sounds proceeded was open the upper rooms were illuminated as for a feast it was a large magnificent house in which doubtless some rich merchant had lived The singing again commenced and rang through the high-roofed rooms while we silently ascended the staircase. Lights now appeared to guide us, and a long suite of splendid rooms illuminated made us still more wonder. Their only inhabitant, a little girl, was dancing, waltzing, and singing about them, followed by a large new-foundland dog, who boisterously jumping on her and interrupting her,

Starting point is 13:00:32 made her now scold, now laugh, now throw herself on the carpet to play with him. She was dressed grotesquely in glittering robes and shawls fit for a woman. She appeared about ten years of age. door looking on this strange scene till the dog perceiving us barked loudly the child turned and saw us her face losing its gaiety assumed a sullen expression she slunk back apparently meditating an escape i came up to her and held her hand she did not resist but with a stern brow so strange in childhood so different from her former hilarity she stood still her eyes fixed on the ground what do you do here i said gently who are you she was silent but trembled violently my poor child asked adrian are you alone there was a winning softness in his voice that went to the heart of the little girl. She looked at him, then snatching her hand from me, threw herself into his arms, clinging round his neck, ejaculating, save me, save me, while her unnatural sullenness dissolved in tears. I will save you, he replied. Of what are you afraid? You need not

Starting point is 13:01:28 fear my friend. He will do you no harm. Are you alone? No, lion is with me. And your father and mother? I never had any. I am a charity girl. Everybody is gone, gone for a great, great many days, but if they come back and find me out, they will beat me so. Her unhappy story was told in these few words. An orphan, taken on pretended charity, ill-treated and reviled, her oppressors had died, and knowing of what had passed around her, she found herself alone. She had not dared venture out, but by the continuance of her solitude, her courage revived. Her childish vivacity caused her to play a thousand freaks, and with her brute companion she passed a long holiday, fearing nothing but the return of the harsh voices and cruel usage

Starting point is 13:02:06 of her protectors. She readily consented to go with Adrian. In the meantime, while we discanted on alien sorrows, and on a solitude which struck our eyes and not our hearts, while we imagined all of change and suffering that had intervened in these once thronged streets, before tenantless and abandoned, they became mere kennels for dogs and stables for cattle, while we read the death of the world upon the dark vein, and hugged ourselves in the remembrance that we possessed that which was all the world to us. In the meanwhile, we had arrived from Windsor early in October, and had now been in London about six weeks. Day by day during that time the health of my Idris declined. Her heart was

Starting point is 13:02:39 broken, neither sleep nor appetite, the chosen servants of health, waited on her wasted form. to watch her children hour by hour to sit by me drinking deep the dear persuasion that i remained her was all her pastime her vivacity so long assumed her affectionate display of cheerfulness her light-hearted tone and springy gait were gone i could not disguise to myself nor could she conceal her life-consuming sorrow still change of scene and reviving hopes might restore her i feared the plague only and she was untouched by that i had left her this evening reposing after the fatigues of her preparations clara sat beside her relating a story to the two boys the eyes of idris were closed but clara perceived a sudden change in the appearance of our eldest darling his heavy lids veiled his eyes and unnatural colour burnt in his cheeks his breath became short clara looked at the mother she slept yet started at the pause the narrator made fear of awaking and alarming her caused clara to go on at the eager call of evelyn who was unaware of what was passing her eyes turned alternately from alfred to idris with trembling accents she continued her tale till she saw the child about to fall starting forward she caught him and her cry roused idris she looked on her son she saw death stealing across his features she laid him on a bed she held drink to his parched lips yet he might be saved if i were there he might be saved perhaps it was not the plague without a counsellor what could she do stay and behold him die why at that moment was i away look to him clara she exclaimed i will return immediately she inquired among those who selected as the companions of our journey had taken up their residence in our house she heard from them merely that i had gone out with adrian she entreated them to seek me she returned to her child he was plunged in a frightful state of torpor again she rushed downstairs all was dark desert and silent she lost all self-possession she ran into the street she called on my name the pattering rain and howling wind alone replied to her wild fear gave wings to her feet she darted forward to seek me she knew not where but putting all her thoughts all her energy all her being in speed only

Starting point is 13:04:31 most misdirected speed she neither felt nor feared nor paused but ran right on till her strength suddenly deserted her so suddenly that she had not thought to save herself her knees failed her and she fell heavily on the pavement she was stunned for a time but at length rose and though sorely hurt still walked on shedding a fountain of tears stumbling at times going she knew not whither only now and then with feeble voice she called my name adding with heart-piercing exclamations that i was cruel and unkind human being there was none to reply and the inclemency of the night had driven the wandering animals to the habitations they had usurped her thin dress was drenched with rain her wet hair clung round her neck she tottered through the dark streets till striking her foot against an unseen impediment she again fell she could not rise she hardly strove but gathering up her limbs she resigned herself to the fury of the elements and the bitter grief of her own heart she breathed an earnest prayer to die speedily for there was no relief but death while hopeless of safety for herself she ceased to lament for her dying child but shed kindly bitter tears for the grief i should experience in losing her while she lay life almost suspended she felt a warm soft hand on her brow and a gentle female voice asked her with expressions of tender compassion if she could not rise that another human being sympathetic and kind should exist near roused her half rising with clasped hands and fresh springing tears she entreated her companion to seek for me to bid me hasten to my dying child to save him for the love of heaven to save him the woman raised her she led her under shelter she entreated her to return to her home whither perhaps i had already returned idris easily yielded to her persuasions she leaned on the arm of her friend she endeavoured to walk on but irresistible faintness made her pause again and again quickened by the increasing storm we had hastened our return our little charge was placed before adrian on his horse there was an assemblage of persons under the portico of our house in whose gestures i instinctively read some heavy change some new misfortune. With swift alarm, afraid to ask a single question, I leapt from my horse, the

Starting point is 13:06:24 spectators saw me, knew me, and in awful silence divided to make way for me. I snatched a light, and rushing upstairs and hearing a groan, without reflection, I threw open the door of the first room that presented itself. It was quite dark, but as I stepped within, a pernicious scent assailed my senses, producing sickening qualms which made their way to my very heart, while I felt my legs clasped, and a groan repeated by the person that held me. I lowered my lamp, and saw a negro half-clad, writhing under the agony of the disease while he held me with a convulsive grasp. With mixed horror and impatience I strove to disengage myself, and fell on the sufferer. He wound his naked, festering arms around me. His face

Starting point is 13:06:59 was close to mine, and his breath, death-laden, entered my vitals. For a moment I was overcome, my head was bowed by aching nausea, till reflection returning I sprung up, through the wretch from me, and darting up the staircase, entered the chamber usually inhabited by my family. A dim light showed me Alfred on a couch, Clara trembling and paler than whitest snow, had raised him on her arm, holding a cup of water to his lips. I saw full well that no spark of life existed in that ruined form. His features were rigid, his eyes glazed, his head had fallen back. I took him from her. I laid him softly down, kissed his cold little mouth, and turned to speak in a vain whisper, when loudest sound of thunder-like cannon could not have reached him in his immaterial abode.

Starting point is 13:07:37 And where was Idris? That she had gone out to seek me and had not returned were fearful tidings, while the rain and driving wind clattered against the window and roared round the house. Added to this, the sickening sensation of disease gained upon me. No time was to be lost, if ever I would see her again. I mounted my horse and rode out to seek her, fancying that I heard her voice in every gust, oppressed by fever and aching pain. I rode in the dark and rain through the labyrinthine streets of unpeopled London.

Starting point is 13:08:02 My child lay dead at home. The seeds of mortal disease had taken root in my bosom. I went to seek Idris, my adored, now wandering alone, while the waters were rushing from heaven like a cataract. to bathe her dear head in a chill damp, her fair limbs in numbing cold. A female stood on the step of a door, and called to me as I galloped past. It was not Idris, so I rode swiftly on, until a kind of second sight, a reflection back again on my senses of what I had seen but not marked,

Starting point is 13:08:26 made me feel sure that another figure, thin, graceful and tall, stood clinging to the foremost person who supported her. In a minute I was beside the suppliant. In a minute I received the sinking Idris on my arms. Lifting her up I placed her on the horse. She had not strength to support herself, So I mounted behind her and held her close to my bosom, wrapping my riding-clink round her, while her companion, whose well-known but changed countenance,

Starting point is 13:08:48 It was Juliet, daughter of the Duke, could at this moment of horror obtain from me no more than a passing glance of compassion. She took the abandoned reign, and conducted our obedience deed homewards. Dare I avouch it? That was the last moment of my happiness. But I was happy. Idris must die, for her heart was broken. I must die, for I had caught the plague. Earth was a scene of desolation.

Starting point is 13:09:08 Hope was madness. Life had married death. were one. But thus supporting my fainting love, thus feeling that I must soon die, I reveled in the delight of possessing her once more, again and again I kissed her and pressed her to my heart. We arrived at our home, I assisted her to dismount, I carried her upstairs, and gave her into Clara's care, that her wet garments might be changed. Briefly I assured Adrian of her safety, and requested that we might be left to repose, as the miser, who with trembling caution visits his treasure to count it again and again, so I numbered each moment, and grudged

Starting point is 13:09:37 everyone that was not spent with Idris. I returned swiftly to the chamber where the life of my life reposed. Before I entered the room, I paused for a few seconds. For a few seconds I tried to examine my state. Sickness and shuddering ever, and anon came over me. My head was heavy, my chest depressed, my legs bent under me, but I threw off resolutely the swift-growing symptoms of my disorder, and met Idris with placid and even joyous looks. She was lying on a couch, carefully fastening the door to prevent all intrusion. I sat by her, we embraced, and our lips met in a kiss, long-drawn and breathless. Would that moment had been my last? Maternal feeling now awoke in my poor girl's bosom, and she asked,

Starting point is 13:10:13 "'And Alfred?' Idris, I replied. We are spared to each other, we are together. Do not let any other idea intrude. I am happy, even on this fatal night. I declare myself happy, beyond all name, all thought, what would you more, sweet one? Idris understood me. She bowed her head on my shoulder and wept. Why, she again asked, do you tremble, and what shakes you thus? Well, may I be shaken, I replied, happy as I am. Our child is dead, and the present an hour is dark and ominous. Well may I tremble, but I am happy, mine own Idris, most happy. I understand thee, my kind love, said Idris, thus palest thou art with sorrow at our loss,

Starting point is 13:10:45 trembling and aghast, thou wouldest assuage my grief by thy dear assurances. I am not happy, and the tears flashed and fell from under her downcast lids, for we are inmates of a miserable prison, and there is no joy for us. But the true love I bear you will render this in every other loss endurable. We have been happy together, at least, I said. No future misery can deprive us of the past. We have been true to each other for years, ever since my sweet princess love came through the snow to the lowly cottage of the poverty-stricken air of the ruined verney. Even now that eternity is before us, we take hope only from the presence of each other. Idris, do you think that when we die we shall be divided? Die, when we die, what mean you? What secret lies hid from me in those dreadful words? Must we not all die, dearest? I asked with a sad smile. Gracious God, are you ill, Lionel, that you speak of death? My only friend, heart of my heart speak.

Starting point is 13:11:33 I do not think, replied I, that we have any of us long to live, and when the curtain drops on this mortal scene, where, think you, we shall find ourselves. Idris was calmed by my unembarrassed tone and look. She answered, You may easily believe that during this long progress of the plague I have thought much on death, and asked myself, now that all mankind is dead to this life, to what other life they may have been born, hour after hour I have dwelt on these thoughts, and strove to form a rational conclusion concerning the mystery of a future state. What a scarecrow, indeed, would death be, if we were merely to call to come, cast aside the shadow in which we now walk, and stepping forth into the unclouded sunshine of knowledge and love, revived with the same companions, the same affections, and reached the

Starting point is 13:12:12 fulfilment of our hopes, leaving our fears with our earthly vesture in the grave. Alas, the same strong feeling which makes me sure that I shall not wholly die, makes me refuse to believe that I shall live wholly as I do now. Yet, Lionel, never, never can I love any but you. Through eternity I must desire your society, and as I am innocent of harm to others, and as relying and confident as my mortal nature permits, I trust that the ruler of the world will never tear us asunder. Your remarks are like yourself, dear love, replied I, gentle and good. Let us cherish such a belief and dismiss anxiety from our minds, but sweet we are so formed, and there is no sin, if God made our nature, to yield to what he ordains, we are so formed that we must love life and cling to it, we must love

Starting point is 13:12:52 the living smile, the sympathetic touch and thrilling voice, peculiar to our mortal mechanism. Let us not, through security and hereafter, neglect the present, this present moment, short as it is, is a part of eternity, and the dearest part since it is our own unalienably. Thou, the hope of my futurity, art my present joy. Let me then look on thy dear eyes, and reading love in them, drink intoxicating pleasure. Timidly, for my vehemence somewhat terrified her, Idris looked on me. My eyes were bloodshot, starting from my head. Every artery beat me thought audibly.

Starting point is 13:13:22 Every muscle throbbed. Each single nerve felt. Her look of wilder fright told me that I could no longer keep my secret. So it is, my own beloved, I said, the last hour of many happy. ones has arrived, nor can we shun any longer the inevitable destiny. I cannot live long, but again and again, I say, this moment is ours. Paler than marble, with white lips and convulsed features, Idris became aware of my situation. My arm as I sat encircled her waist, she felt the palm burn with fever, even on the heart it pressed. One moment, she murmured scarce audibly.

Starting point is 13:13:51 Only one moment. She kneeled, and, hiding her face in her hands, uttered a brief but earnest prayer that she might fulfil her duty and watch over me to the last. While there was hope the agony had been unendurable, all was now concluded, her feelings became solemn and calm. Even as Epicaris, unperturbed and firm, submitted to the instruments of torture, did Idris suppressing every sigh and sign of grief enter upon the endurance of torments, of which the rack and the wheel are but faint and metaphysical symbols. I was changed, the tight-drawn chord that sounded so harshly was loosened, the moment that Idris participated in my knowledge of our real situation.

Starting point is 13:14:25 The perturbed and passion-tossed waves of thought subsided, leaving only the heavy swell that kept right on without any outward manifestation of its disturbance till it should break on the remote shore towards which i rapidly advanced it is true that i am sick i said and your society my address is my only medicine come and sit beside me she made me lie down on the couch and drawing a low ottoman near sat close to my pillow pressing my burning hands in her cold palms she yielded to my feverish restlessness and let me talk and talk to me on subject strange indeed to beings who thus looked the last and heard the last of what they loved alone in the world we talked of times gone by of the happy period of our early love of raymond perdita and evadne we talked of what might arise on this desert earth if two or three being saved it were slowly repupled we talked of what was beyond the tomb and man in his human shape being nearly extinct we felt with certainty of faith that other spirits other minds other perceptive beings sightless to us must people with thought and love this beauteous and imperishable universe we talked i know not how long but in the morning i awoke from a painful heavy slumber the pale cheek of idris rested on my pillow the large orbs of her eyes half raised the lids and showed the deep blue lights beneath her lips were enclosed and the slight murmurs they formed told that even while asleep she suffered if she were dead i thought what difference now that form is the temple of a residing deity those eyes are the windows of her soul all grace love and intelligence are throned on that lovely bosom were she dead where would this mind the dearer half of mine be for quickly the fair proportion of this edifice would be more defaced than are the sand-choked ruins of the desert temples of palmyra Chapter T. Volume 3, Chapter 3 of The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox

Starting point is 13:16:26 recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Reading by Nicodemus. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 3, Chapter 3. Idris stirred and awoke, alas. She awoke to misery. She saw the signs of disease on my continents and wondered how she could permit the long night to pass without her having sought, not cure that was impossible, but alleviation to my sufferings. She called Adrian, my couch was quickly surrounded by friends and assistants, and such medicines as were judged fitting were administered. It was the peculiar and dreadful distinction of our visitation that none who had been attacked by the pestilence had recovered. The first symptom of the

Starting point is 13:17:15 disease was the death warrant, which in no single instance had. had been followed by pardon or reprieve. No gleam of hope, therefore, cheered my friends. While fever-producing torpor, heavy pains, sitting like lead on my limbs and making my breast-heave were upon me, I continued insensible to everything but pain, and at last even to that. I awoke on the fourth morning as from a dreamless sleep, an irritating sense of thirst, and when I strove to speak or move, an entire dereliction of power was all I felt. For three days and nights, Idris had not moved from my side. She administered to all my wants and never slept nor rested. She did not hope, and therefore she neither endeavored to read the physician's continence, nor to watch

Starting point is 13:17:58 for symptoms of recovery. All her thought was to attend on me to the last, and then to lie down and die beside me. On the third night animation was suspended. To the eye and touch of all I was dead. With earnest prayer almost with force, Adrian tried to draw Idris from me. He was exhausted every adjuration, her child's welfare and his own. She shook her head and wiped a stealing tear from her sunk cheek but would not yield. She entreated to be allowed to watch me that one night only, with such affliction and meek earnestness, that she gained her point, and sat silent and motionless, except when stung by intolerable remembrance, she kissed my closed eyes and pallid lips, and pressed my stiffening hands to her beating heart. At dead of night, when though it was

Starting point is 13:18:48 midwinter, the cock crowed at three o'clock, as herald of the morning change, while hanging over me and mourning and silent, bitter thought for the loss of all of love towards her that had been enshrined in my heart. Her disheveled hair hung over her face, and the long tresses fell on the bed. She saw one ringlet in motion, and the scattered hair slightly stirred, as by a breath. It is not so, she thought, for he will never breathe more. Several times the same thing occurred, and she only marked it by the same reflection, till the whole ringlet waved back, and she thought she saw my breast-heave.

Starting point is 13:19:24 Her first emotion was deadly fear. Cold dew stood on her brow. My eyes half opened, and reassured she would have exclaimed, He lives! But the words were choked by a spasm, and she fell with a groan on the floor. Adrian was in the chamber.

Starting point is 13:19:40 After long watching, he had unwillingly fallen into a sleep. He started up and beheld his sister senseless on the earth, weltering in a stream of blood that gushed from her mouth. Increasing signs of life in me in some degree explained her state. The surprise, the burst of joy, the revulsion of every sentiment, had been too much for her frame, worn by long months of care, late shattered by every species of woe and toil. She was now in far greater danger than I.

Starting point is 13:20:06 The wheels and springs of my life once again set in motion acquired elasticity from their short suspension. For a long time, no one believed that I should indeed, continue to live. During the reign of the plague upon earth, not one person attacked by the grim disease had recovered. My restoration was looked on as a deception. Every moment it was expected that the evil symptoms would recur with redoubled violence until confirmed convalescence, absence of all fever or pain, and increasing strength, brought slow conviction that I had recovered from the plague. The restoration of Idris was more problematical. When I had been attacked by illness,

Starting point is 13:20:45 her cheeks were sunk, her form emaciated. But now the vessel, which had broken from the effects of extreme agitation, did not entirely heal, but was as a channel that dropped by drop drew from her the ruddy stream that vivified her heart. Her hollow eyes and worn continents had a ghastly appearance. Her cheekbones, her open fair brow, the projection of the mouth, stood fearfully prominent. You might tell each bone in the thin anatomy of her frame. Her hand hung powerless, each joint lay bare.

Starting point is 13:21:15 so that the light penetrated through and through. It was strange that life could exist in what was wasted and worn into a very type of death. To take her from these heartbreaking scenes, to lead her to forget the world's desolation and the variety of objects presented by traveling, and to nurse her failing strength in the mild climate towards which we had resolved to journey, was my last hope for her preservation. The preparations for our departure, which had been suspended during my illness, were renewed. I did not revive to doubtful convalescence. Health spent her treasures upon me, as the tree

Starting point is 13:21:51 and spring may feel from its wrinkled limbs the fresh green break forth, and the living sap rise and circulate, so did the renewed vigor of my frame, the cheerful current of my blood, the newborn elasticity of my limbs, influence my mind to cheerful endurance and pleasurable thoughts. My body, late the heavy weight that bound me to the tomb, was exuberant with health. mere common exercises were insufficient for my reviving strength. Me thought I could emulate the speed of the racehorse, discern through the air objects at a blinding distance. Here the operations of nature in her mute abodes.

Starting point is 13:22:28 My senses had become so refined and susceptible after my recovery from mortal disease. Hope, among my other blessings, was not denied to me, and I did fondly trust that my unwary attentions would restore my adored girl. I was therefore eager to forward our preparations. According to the plan first laid down, we were to have quitted London on the 25th of November, and in pursuance of this scheme two-thirds of our people, the people, all that remained of England,

Starting point is 13:22:57 had gone forward, and had already been some weeks in Paris. First, my illness, and subsequently that of Idris, had detained Adrian with his division, which consisted of 300 persons, so that now we departed on the 1st of January, 2008. It was my wish to keep Idris as distant as possible from the hurry and clamor of the crowd, and to hide from her those appearances that would remind her most forcibly of our real situation. We separated ourselves to a great degree from Adrian, who was obliged to give

Starting point is 13:23:27 his whole time to public business. The Countess of Windsor traveled with her son. Clara, Evelyn, and a female who acted as our attendant were the only persons with whom we had contact. We occupied a commodious carriage, our servant officiated as coachman. A party of about twenty persons preceded us at a small distance. They had it in charge to prepare our halting places and our nightly abode. They had been selected for this service out of a great number that offered, on account of their superior sagacity of the man who had been appointed their leader. Immediately on our departure, I was delighted to find a change in Idris, which I fondly hoped prognosticated the happiest results. All the cheerfulness and gentle gaiety, natural to her, revived.

Starting point is 13:24:12 She was weak, and this alteration was rather displayed in looks and voice than in acts, but it was permanent and real. My recovery from the plague and confirmed health instilled into her a firm belief that I was now secure from this dread enemy. She told me that she was sure she would recover, that she had a presentiment, that the tide of calamity which deluged our unhappy race had now turned. that the remnant would be preserved and among them the dear objects of her tender affection and that in some selected spot we should wear out our lives together in pleasant society do not let my state of feebleness deceive you she said i feel that i am better there is a quick life within me and a spirit of anticipation that assures me that i shall continue long to make a part of this world i shall throw off this degrading weakness of body which infects even my mind with debility and i shall enter again on the performance of my duties i was sorry to leave windsor but now i am weaned from this local attachment i am content to remove to a mild climate which will come to leave windsor which will come to leave to my own climate which will complete my recovery trust me dearest i shall never leave you nor my brother nor these dear children my firm determination to remain with you to the last and to continue to contribute to your happiness and welfare would keep me alive even if grim death were nearer at hand than he really is

Starting point is 13:25:35 I was only half reassured by these expressions. I could not believe that the overquick flow of her blood was a sign of health, or that her burning cheeks denoted convalescence. But I had no fears of an immediate catastrophe, nay, I persuaded myself that she would ultimately recover, and thus cheerfulness reigned in our little society. Idris conversed with animation on a thousand topics. Her chief desire was to lead our thoughts from melancholy reflections,

Starting point is 13:26:03 so she drew charming pictures of a tranquil solitude, of a beauteous retreat, of the simple manners of our little tribe, and of the patriarchal brotherhood of love, which would survive the ruins of the populous nations which had lately existed. We shut out from our thoughts to present, and withdrew our eyes from the dreary landscape we traversed. Winter reigned in all its gloom, the leafless trees lay without motion against the dun sky, the forms of frost mimicking the foliage of summer, strewed the ground, the paths were overgrown. The unplowed cornfields were patched with grass and weeds. The sheep congregated at the threshold of the cottage.

Starting point is 13:26:41 The horned ox thrust his head from the window. The wind was bleak and frequent sleet or snowstorms added to the melancholy appearance, wintry nature assumed. We arrived at Rochester, and an accident caused us to be detained there a day. During that time a circumstance occurred that changed our plans, and which, alas, in its result, changed the eternal course of the day. of events, turning me from the pleasant new-sprung hope I enjoyed, to an obscure and gloomy desert. But I must give some little explanation before I proceed with the final cause of our

Starting point is 13:27:14 temporary alteration of plan, and refer again to those times when man walked the earth fearless, before plague had become queen of the world. There resided a family in the neighborhood of Windsor, of very humble pretensions, but which had been an object of interest to us on account of one of the persons of whom it was composed. The family of the Clayton's had known better days, but after a series of reverses the father died of bankrupt, and the mother heartbroken, and a confirmed invalid, retired with her five children to a little cottage between Eton and Salt Hill. The eldest of these children, who was 13 years old, seemed at once from the influence of adversity to acquire the sagacity and principle belonging to a more mature age. Her mother grew

Starting point is 13:28:00 worse and worse in health, but Lucy attended on her, and was as a tender parent to her younger brothers and sisters, and in the meantime showed herself so good-humored, social, and benevolent, that she was beloved by all as well as honored in her little neighborhood. Lucy was besides extremely pretty, so when she grew to be sixteen, it was to be supposed, notwithstanding her poverty, that she should have admirers. One of these was the son of a country curate. He was a generous, frank-hearted youth with an ardent love of knowledge and no mean acquirements. Though Lucy was untaught, her mother's conversation and manners gave her a taste for refinements superior to her present situation. She loved the youth even without knowing it, except that in any

Starting point is 13:28:45 difficulty she naturally turned to him for aid and awoke with a lighter heart every Sunday because she knew that she would be met and accompanied by him in her evening walk with her sisters. She had another admirer, one of the head waiters at the inn at Salt Hill. He also was not without pretensions to urbane superiority, such as he learnt from gentlemen's servants and waiting maids, who initiating him in all the slang of high life below stairs, rendered his arrogant temper ten times more intrusive. Lucy did not disclaim him.

Starting point is 13:29:18 She was incapable of that feeling, but she was sorry when she saw him approach and quietly resisted all his endeavors to establish an intimacy. The fellow soon discovered that his rival was preferred to him, and this changed what was at first a chance admiration into a passion, whose main springs were envy and a base desire to deprive his competitor of the advantage he enjoyed over himself. Poor Lucy's sad story was but a common one. Her lover's father died, and he was left destitute. He accepted the offer of a gentleman to go to India with him, feeling secure that he should soon acquire an independence, and returned to claim that he was left destitute. feeling secure that he should soon acquire an independence and returned to claim the hand of his beloved he became involved in the war carried on there was taken prisoner and years elapsed before tidings of his existence were received in his native land

Starting point is 13:30:07 in the meantime disastrous poverty came on lucy her little cottage which stood looking from its trellis covered with woodbine and jesiman was burnt down and the whole of their little property was included in the destruction whither betake them by what exactly exertion of industry could Lucy procure them another abode. Her mother, nearly bedrid, could not survive any extreme of famine-strict poverty. At this time, her other admirer stepped forward and renewed his offer of marriage. He had saved money and was going to set up a little inn at Thatchit. There was nothing alluring to Lucy in this offer, except the home it secured to her mother, and she felt more sure of this, since she was struck by the apparent generosity which occasioned the present offer. She accepted it, thus. sacrificing herself for the comfort and welfare of her parent. It was some years after her marriage

Starting point is 13:30:58 that we became acquainted with her. The accident of a storm caused us to take refuge in the inn, where we witnessed the brutal and quarrelsome behavior of her husband and her patient endurance. Her lot was not a fortunate one, her first lover had returned with the hope of making her his own, and met her by accident for the first time as the mistress of his country inn, and the wife of another. He withdrew despairingly to foreign parts. Nothing went well with him. At last he enlisted and came back again wounded and sick, and yet Lucy was debarred from nursing him.

Starting point is 13:31:31 Her husband's brutal disposition was aggravated by his yielding to the many temptations held out by his situation, and the consequent disarrangement of his affairs. Fortunately, she had no children, but her heart was bound up in her brothers and sisters, and these his avarice and ill-temper soon drove from the house. They were dispersed about the country, earning their livelihood with toil and care.

Starting point is 13:31:55 He even showed an inclination to get rid of her mother, but Lucy was firm here. She had sacrificed herself for her. She had lived for her. She would not part with her. If the mother went, she would also go beg bread for her. Die with her, but never desert her. The presence of Lucy was too necessary in keeping up the order of the house, and in preventing the whole establishment from going to wreck,

Starting point is 13:32:18 for him to permit her to leave him. He yielded the point, but in all accesses of anger or in his drunken fits, he recurred to the old topic and stung poor Lucy's heart by opprobrious epithets bestowed on her parent. A passion, however, if it be wholly pure, entire and reciprocal, brings with it its own solace. Lucy was truly and from the depth of heart devoted to her mother. The sole end she proposed to herself in life was the comfort and preservation of this parent. though she grieved for the result yet she did not repent of her marriage even when her lover returned to bestow competence on her three years had intervened and how in their penniless state could her mother have existed during this time this excellent woman was worthy of her child's devotion a perfect confidence and friendship existed between them besides she was by no means illiterate and lucy whose mind had been in some degree cultivated by her former lover now found in her the only person who could understand and appreciate her thus though suffering she was by no means desolate

Starting point is 13:33:25 and when during fine summer days she led her mother into the flowery and shady lanes near their abode a gleam of unmixed joy enlightened her countenance she saw that her parent was happy and she knew that this happiness was of her soul creating meanwhile her husband's affairs grew more and more involved ruin was near at hand and she was about to lose the fruit of all of her labors when pestilence came to change the aspect of the world her husband reaped benefit from the universal misery but as the disaster increased the spirit of lawlessness seized him he deserted his home to revel in the luxuries promised him in london and found there a grave her former lover had been one of the first victims of the disease but lucy continued to live for and in her mother her courage only failed when she dreaded peril for her parent or feared that death might prevent her from performing those duties to which she was unalterably devoted when we had quitted windsor for london as the previous step to our final emigration we visited lucy and arranged with her the plan of her own and her mother's removal lucy was sorry at the necessity which forced her to quit her native lanes and village, and to drag an infirm parent from her comforts at home, to the homeless waste of depopulate earth, but she was too well disciplined by adversity, and of too sweet a temper to indulge in repinings at what was inevitable. Subsequent circumstances, my illness, and that of

Starting point is 13:34:53 Idris drove her from our remembrance, and we called her to mind at last only to conclude that she made one of the few who came from Windsor to join the immigrants, and that she was already in Paris. When we arrived at Rochester, therefore, we were surprised to receive, by a man just come from Slough, a letter from this exemplary sufferer. His account was that, journeying from his home and passing through Dachet, he was surprised to see smoke issue from the chimney of the inn, and supposing that he should find comrades for his journey assembled there, he'd knocked and was admitted. There was no one in the house but Lucy and her mother. The latter had been deprived of the use of her limbs by an attack of rheumatism, and so one by one all the remaining inhabitants of the country set forward, leaving them alone. Lucy entreated the man to stay with her.

Starting point is 13:35:40 In a week or two her mother would be better, and they would then set out, but they must perish if they were left thus helpless and forlorn. The man said that his wife and children were already among the immigrants, and it was therefore, according to his notion, impossible for him to remain. Lucy, as a last resource, gave him a letter for Idris, to be delivered to her wherever he should meet us. This commission at least he fulfilled, and Idris received with the motion the following letter. Honored Lady I am sure that you will remember and pity me, and I dare hope that you will assist me.

Starting point is 13:36:14 What other hope have I? Pardon my manner of writing, I am so bewildered. A month ago my dear mother was deprived of the use of her limbs. She is already better, and in another month would I am sure be able to travel, in the way you were so kind as to say you would arrange for us. But now everybody is gone, everybody. As they went away, each said that perhaps my mother would be better before we were quite deserted.

Starting point is 13:36:40 But three days ago I went to Samuel Woods, who on account of his newborn child, remained to the last. And there being a large family of them, I thought I could persuade them to wait a little longer for us, but I found the house deserted. I have not seen a soul since till this good man came. What will become of us? My mother does not know our state.

Starting point is 13:37:00 She is so ill that I have hidden it from her. Will you not send someone to us? I am sure we must perish miserably, as we are. If I were to try to move my mother now, she would die on the road, and if when she gets better I were able. I cannot guess how, to find out the roads, and get on so many miles to the sea. You would all be in France, and the great ocean would be between us, which is so terrible even to sailors.

Starting point is 13:37:26 What would it be to me, a woman, who never saw it? We should be imprisoned by it in this country, all, all alone, with no help. Better die where we are. I can hardly write. I cannot stop my tears. It is not for myself. I could put my trust in God and let the worst come. I think I could bear it if I were alone.

Starting point is 13:37:46 But my mother, my sick, my dear, dear mother, who never since I was born. born, spoke a harsh word to me, who has been patient in my sufferings. Pity her, dear lady. She must die a miserable death if you do not pity her. People speak carelessly of her because she is old and infirm, as if we must not all, if we are spared, become so. And then, when the younger old themselves, they will think that they ought to be taken care of. It is very silly of me to write in this way to you, but when I hear her trying not to groan, and see her look smiling on me to comfort me, when I know she is in pain, and when I think she does not know the worst, but she soon must, and then she will not

Starting point is 13:38:24 complain. But I shall sit guessing at all that she is dwelling upon, of famine and misery. I feel as if my heart must break, and I do not know what I say or do. My mother, mother for whom I have borne much, God preserve you from this fate. Preserve her lady, and he will bless you, and I, poor miserable creature as I am, will thank you and pray for you while I live. Your unhappy and dutiful servant, December 30, 2007, Lucy Martin. This letter deeply affected Idris, and she instantly proposed that we should return to Datchett to assist Lucy and her mother. I said that I would without delay set out for that place, but entreated her to join her brother, and there await my return with the children.

Starting point is 13:39:10 But Idris was in high spirits and full of hope. She declared that she could not consent even to a temporary separation from me, but that there was no need of this. the motion of the carriage did her good and the distance was too trifling to be considered. We could dispatch messengers to Adrian to inform him of our deviation from the original plan. She spoke with vivacity and drew a picture after her own dear heart

Starting point is 13:39:33 of the pleasure we should bestow upon Lucy and declared if I went she must accompany me and that she should very much dislike to entrust the charge of rescuing them to others who might fulfill it with coldness or inhumanity. Lucy's life had been one act of devotion and virtue let her now reap the small reward of finding her excellence appreciated, and her necessity assisted, by those whom she respected and honored.

Starting point is 13:39:58 These and many other arguments were urged with gentle pertinacity, and the ardor of a wish to do all the good in her power, by her whose simple expression of a desire and slightest request had ever been a law with me. I, of course, consented, the moment that I saw that she had set her heart upon this step. We sent half our attendant troop on to Adrian, and with the other half our carriage took a retrograde course back to Windsor. I wonder now how I could be so blind and senseless as thus to risk the safety of Idris, for if I had eyes, surely I could see the sure, though deceitful advance of death in her burning cheek and increasing weakness.

Starting point is 13:40:35 But she said she was better and I believed her. Extinction could not be near a being whose vivacity and intelligence hourly increased, and whose frame was endowed with an intense, and I fondly thought, a strong and permanent spirit of life, who, after a great disaster has not looked back with wonder at his inconceivable obtuseness of understanding, that could not perceive the many minute threads with which fate weaves the inextricable net of our destinies, until he is enmeshed completely in it. The crossroads which we now entered upon were even in a worse state than the long-neglected highways, and the inconvenience seemed to menace the perishing frame of Idris with

Starting point is 13:41:14 destruction. Passing through Dartford, we arrived at Hampton on the second day. Even in this short interval, my beloved companion grew sensibly worse in health, though her spirits were still light, and she cheered my growing anxiety with gay sallies. Sometimes the thought pierced my brain. Is she dying? As I saw her fair, fleshless hand rest on mine, or observed the feebleness with which she performed the accustomed acts of life. I drove away the idea as if it had been suggested by insanity, but it was a little bit of it occurred again and again, only to be dispelled by the continued liveliness of her manner. About midday, after quitting Hampton, our carriage broke down. The shock caused Idris to faint,

Starting point is 13:41:56 but on her reviving no other ill consequence ensued. Our party of attendance had, as usual, gone on before us, and our coachman went in search of another vehicle, our former one being rendered by this accident unfit for service. The only place near us was a poor village in which he found a kind of caravan, able to hold four fours. people, but it was clumsy and ill-hung. Besides this, he found a very excellent cabriolet. Our plan was soon arranged. I would drive Idris in the latter, while the children were conveyed by the servant in the former. But these arrangements cost time. We had agreed to proceed that night to Windsor, and thither our purveyors had gone. We should find considerable

Starting point is 13:42:35 difficulty in getting accommodation before we reached this place. After all, the distance was only ten miles. My horse was a good one. I would go forward. at a good pace with Idris, leaving the children to follow at a rate more consonant to the uses of their cumberous machine. Evening closed in quickly, far more quickly than I was prepared to expect. At the going down of the sun it began to snow heavily. I attempted in vain to defend my beloved companion from the storm. The winds drove the snow in our faces, and it lay so high on the ground that we made but small way, while the night was so dark, that but for the white covering on the ground we should not have been able to see a yard before us.

Starting point is 13:43:14 We had left our accompanying caravan far behind us, and now I perceived that the storm had made me unconsciously deviate from my intended route. I had gone some miles out of my way. My knowledge of the country enabled me to regain the right road, but instead of going at first agreed upon by a crossroad through Stanwell to dach it, I was obliged to take the way of Egham and Bishopgate.

Starting point is 13:43:36 It was certain, therefore, that I should not be rejoined by the other vehicle, that I should not meet a single fellow creature till we arrived at Windsor. The back of our carriage was drawn up, and I hung a palace before it, thus to curtain the beloved sufferer from the pelting sleet. She leaned on my shoulder, growing every moment more languid and feeble. At first she replied to my words of cheer with affectionate thanks, but by degrees she sunk into silence. Her head lay heavily upon me.

Starting point is 13:44:04 I only knew that she lived by her irregular breathing and frequent sighs. For a moment I resolved to stop, and opposing the back of the cabriolet to the force of the tempest, to expect morning as well as I might. But the wind was bleak and piercing, while the occasional shudderings of my poor Idris, and the intense cold I felt myself, demonstrated that this would be a dangerous experiment. At length methought she slept, fatal sleep, induced by frost. At this moment I saw the heavy outline of a cottage traced on the dark horizon close to us. "'Dearest love,' I said,

Starting point is 13:44:37 "'support yourself but one moment, and we shall have shelter. "'Let us stop here that I may open the door of this blessed dwelling.' "'As I spoke my heart was transported, "'and my senses swam with excessive delight and thankfulness. "'I placed the head of Idris against the carriage, "'and leaping out scrambled through the snow to the cottage, "'whose door was open. "'I had apparatus about me for procuring light,

Starting point is 13:44:59 "'and that showed me a comfortable room "'with a pile of wood in one corner, "'and no appearance of disorder, except that the door having been left partly open, the snow drifting in had blocked up the threshold. I returned to the carriage, and the sudden change from light to darkness had first blinded me. When I recovered my sight, eternal god of this lawless world, O supreme death, I will not disturb thy silent rain or mar my tail with fruitless exclamations of horror. I saw Idras, who had fallen from the seat to the bottom of the carriage.

Starting point is 13:45:31 Her head, its long hair pendant, with one arm hung over the side. Struck by a spasm of horror, I lifted her up. Her heart was pulseless, her faded lips unfanned by the slightest breath. I carried her into the cottage. I placed her on the bed. Lighting of fire, I chafed her stiffening limbs for two long hours I sought to restore departed life, and when hope was as dead as my beloved, I closed with trembling hands her glazed eyes. I did not doubt what I should now do.

Starting point is 13:46:06 In the confusion attendant on my illness, the task of interring our darling Alfred had devolved on his grandmother, the ex-Queen, and she, true to her ruling passion, had caused him to be carried to Windsor and buried in the family vault in St. George's Chapel. I must proceed to Windsor to calm the anxiety of Clara, who would wait anxiously for us. Yet I would fain spare her the heartbreaking spectacle of Idris, brought in by me lifeless from the journey. So first I would place my beloved beside her child in the vault, and then seek the poor children who would be expecting me. I lighted the lamps of my carriage. I wrapped her in furrows and placed her along the seat. Then taking the reins made the horses go forward. We proceeded through the snow, which lay in masses impeding the way, while the descending flakes, driving against me with redoubled fury, blinded me.

Starting point is 13:46:58 The pain occasioned by the angry elements, and the cold iron of the shafts of frost which buffeted me, and entered my aching flesh were a relief to me, blunting my mental suffering. The horses staggered on, and the rains hung loosely in my hands. I often thought I would lay my head close to the sweet, cold face of my lost angel, and thus resigned myself to conquering torpor. Yet I must not leave her prey to the fowls of the air, but in pursuance of my determination place her in the tomb of her forefathers, where a merciful God might permit me to rest also. The road we passed through Egham was familiar to me. But the The wind and snow caused the horses to drag their load slowly and heavily.

Starting point is 13:47:40 Suddenly the wind veered from southwest to west and then again to northwest. As Samson with tug and strain stirred from their bases the columns that supported the Philistine Temple, so did the gale shake the dense vapors propped on the horizon, while the massy dome of clouds fell to the south, disclosing through their scattered web the clear Imperion, and the little stars, which were set at an immeasurable distance in the crystalline fields, showered their small rays on the glittering snow. Even the horses were cheered and moved on with renovated strength.

Starting point is 13:48:11 We entered the forest at Bishopgate, and at the end of the long walk I saw the castle, the proud keep of Windsor, rising in the majesty of proportion, girt with the double belt of its kindred and coval towers. I looked with reverence on a structure, ancient almost as the rock on which it stood, abode of kings, theme of admiration for the wise. With greater reverence and tearful affection, I beheld it as the asylum of the long lease of love I had enjoyed there, with the perishable, unmatchable treasure of dust, which now lay cold beside me.

Starting point is 13:48:46 Now indeed I could have yielded to all the softness of my nature, and wept, and womanlike have uttered bitter plaints, while the familiar trees, the herds of living deer, the sward oft pressed by her fairy feet, one by one with sad association, presented themselves. the white gate at the end of the long walk was wide open and i rode up the empty town through the first gate of the feudal tower and now st george's chapel with its blackened fretted sides was right before me i halted at its door which was open i entered and placed my lighted lamp on the altar then i returned and with tender caution i bore idris up the aisle into the chancel and laid her softly down on the carpet which covered the step leading to the communion table the banners of the knights of the garter and their half-drawn swords were hung in vain and blazonry above the stalls the banner of her family hung there still surmounted by its regal crown farewell to the glory and heraldry of england i turned from such vanity with a slight feeling of wonder at how mankind could have ever been interested in such things i bent over the lifeless corpse of my beloved and while looking on her uncovered face the features already contracted by the rigidity of death I felt as if all the visible universe had grown as soulless, inane, and comfortless as the clay-cold image beneath me. I felt for a moment the intolerable sense of struggle within, and detestation for the laws which govern the world. To the calm, still visible on the face of my dead love, recalled me to a more soothing tone of mind,

Starting point is 13:50:19 and I proceeded to fulfil the last office that can now be paid her. For her I could not lament. So much I envied her enjoyment of the sad immunities of the grave. The vault had been lately opened to place our Alfred therein. The ceremony customary in these later days had been cursorily performed, and the pavement of the chapel, which was its entrance, having been removed, had not been replaced. I descended the steps and walked through the long passage to the large vault, which contained the kindred dust of my idris.

Starting point is 13:50:51 I distinguished the small coffin of my babe. With hasty, trembling hands I constructed a beer beside it, spreading it with the firs and Indian shawls, which had wrapped Idris in her journey thither. I lighted the glimmering lamp which flickered in this damp abode of the dead, then I bore my lost one to her last bed, decently composing her limbs and covering them with a mantle, failing all except her face, which remained lovely and placid. She appeared to rest like one over-wearied, her beauteous eyes steeped in sweet slumber. Yet so it was not she was dead. How intensely I then longed to lie down beside her, to gaze till death should gather me to the same repose. But death does not come at the

Starting point is 13:51:35 bidding of the miserable. I had lately recovered from mortal illness, and my blood had never flowed with such an even current, nor had my limbs ever been so instinct with quick life as now. I felt that my death must be voluntary. Yet what more natural than famine, as I watched in this chamber of mortality, placed in a world of the dead, beside the lost hope of my life? Meanwhile, as I looked on her, the features which bore a sisterly resemblance to Adrian, brought my thoughts back again to the living, to this dear friend, to Clara and to Evelyn, who were probably now in Windsor, waiting anxiously for our arrival. Me thought I heard a noise, a step in the far chapel, which was re-echoed by its vaulted roof and borne to me through the hollow passages. Had Clara seen my carriage pass up the town, and did she seek me here?

Starting point is 13:52:24 I must save her at least from the horrible scene the vault presented. sprung up the steps and then saw a female figure bent with age and clad in long morning robes, advanced through the dusky chapel, supported by a slender cane, yet tottering even with his support. She heard me and looked up. The lamp I held illuminated my figure, and the moonbeams, struggling through the painted glass, fell upon her face, wrinkled and gaunt, yet with a piercing eye and commanding brow. I recognized the Countess of Windsor, with the hollow voice she asked, where is the princess? I pointed to the torn-up pavement.

Starting point is 13:53:03 She walked to the spot and looked down into the palpable darkness, for the vault was too distant for the rays of the small lamp I had left there to be discernible. Your light, she said. I gave it her, and she regarded the now visible but precipitous steps, as if calculating her capacity to descend. Instinctively I made a silent offer of my assistance. She motioned me away, with a look of scorn, saying in a harsh voice as she pointed downwards,

Starting point is 13:53:30 there at least I may have her undisturbed. She walked deliberately down, while I, overcome, miserable beyond words or tears, or groans, threw myself on the pavement near. The stiffening form of Idris was before me, the death-struck continents hushed in eternal repose beneath. That was to me the end of all. The day before I had figured to myself various adventures

Starting point is 13:53:54 and communion with my friends in after-time. Now I had leapt the interval and reached the utmost edge and born of life. Thus wrapped in gloom, enclosed, walled up, vaulted over by the omnipotent present. I was startled by the sound of feet on the steps of the tomb, and I remembered her whom I had utterly forgotten, my angry visitant. Her tall form slowly rose upwards from the vault, a living statue, instinct with hate, and human, passionate strife. She seemed to me as having reached the pavement of the aisle, she stood motionless, seeking

Starting point is 13:54:30 with her eyes alone some desired object, till perceiving me close to her, she placed her wrinkled hand on my arm, exclaiming with tremulous accents. Lionel Verney, my son, this name applied at such a moment by my angel's mother, instilled into me more respect than I had ever before felt for this disdainful lady. I bowed my head and kissed her shrivelled hand. and remarking that she trembled violently supported her to the end of the chancel where she sat on the steps that led to the regal stall she suffered herself to be led and still holding my hand she leaned her head back against the stall while the moonbeams tinged with various colours by the painted glass fell on her glistening eyes aware of her weakness again calling to mind her long-cherished dignity she dashed the tears away yet they fell fast as she said for excuse she is so beautiful beautiful and placid, even in death. No harsh feeling ever clouded her serene brow. How did I treat

Starting point is 13:55:30 her, wounding her gentle heart with savage coldness? I had no compassion on her in past years. Does she forgive me now? Little, little does it boot to talk of repentance and forgiveness to the dead. Had I during her life once consulted her gentle wishes, and curbed my rugged nature to do her pleasure, I should not feel thus. Idris and her mother were unlike in person. The dark hair, deep-set black eyes and prominent features of the ex-queen were in entire contrast to the golden tresses, the full blue orbs, and the soft lines and contour of her daughter's continents.

Starting point is 13:56:07 Yet in later days, illness had taken from my poor girl the full outline of her face and reduced it to the inflexible shape of the bone beneath. In the form of her brow and her oval chin that was to be found a resemblance to her mother, May in some moods their gestures were not unlike, nor having lived so long together was this wonderful. There is a magic power in resemblance. When one we love dies, we hope to see them in another state, and half expect that the agency of mind will inform its new garb and imitation of its decayed earthly vesture. But these are ideas of the mind only.

Starting point is 13:56:43 We know that the instrument is shivered. The sensible image lies in miserable fragments, dissolved to dusty nothingness. A look, a gesture, or a fashioning of the limbs similar to the dead in a living person, touches a thrilling chord, whose sacred harmony is felt in the heart's dearest recess. Strangely moved, prostrate before this spectral image, and enslaved by the force of blood manifested in likeness of look and movement, I remain trembling in the presence of the harsh, proud, until now unloved mother of Idris. Poor mistaken woman!

Starting point is 13:57:17 In her tenderest mood before, she had cherished. the idea that a word, the look of reconciliation from her, would be received with joy and repay long years of severity. Now that the time was gone for the exercise of such power, she fell at once upon the thorny truth of things, and felt that neither smile nor caress could penetrate to the unconscious state, or influenced the happiness of her who lay in the vault beneath. This conviction, together with remembrance of soft replies to bitter speeches, of gentle looks repaying angry glances, the perception of the falsehood, paltriness and futility of her cherished dreams of birth and power, the overpowering knowledge that love and life were the true

Starting point is 13:57:57 emperors of our mortal state, all as a tide rose and filled her soul with stormy and bewildering confusion. It fell to my lot to come as the influential power, to allay the fierce tossing of these tumultuous waves. I spoke to her, I led her to reflect how happy Idris had really been, and how her virtues and numerous excellencies had found scope and estimation in her past career. I praised her the idol of my heart's dear worship, the admired type of feminine perfection. With ardent and overflowing eloquence, I relieved my heart from its burthen, and awoke to the sense of a new pleasure in life as I poured forth the funeral eulogy. Then I referred to Adrian, her loved brother, and to her surviving child. I declared, which I had before almost forgotten, what my duties were with regard to

Starting point is 13:58:46 these valued portions of herself, and bade the melancholy repentant mother reflect how she could best expiate unkindness towards the dead by redoubled love of the survivors. Consoling her my own sorrows were assuaged. My sincerity won her entire conviction. She turned to me, the hard, inflexible, persecuting woman, turned with a mild expression of face and said, If our beloved angel sees us now, it will delight her to find that I do you, even tardy justice. You are worthy of her, and from my heart I am glad that you won her away from me. Pardon, my son, the many wrongs I have done you. Forget my bitter words and unkind treatment. Take me and govern me as you will. I seized the docile moment to propose our departure from the

Starting point is 13:59:34 church. First, she said, let us replace the pavement above the vault. We drew near to it. Shall we look on her again, I asked? I cannot, she replied, and I pray. I pray. pray you, neither do you. We need not torture ourselves by gazing on the soulless body, while her living spirit is buried quick in our hearts, and her surpassing loveliness is so deeply carved there that sleeping or waking she must ever be present to us. For a few moments we bent in solemn silence over the open vault. I consecrated my future life to the embalming of her dear memory. I vowed to serve her brother and her child till death. The convulsive sob of my companion made me break off my internal horizons.

Starting point is 14:00:19 I next dragged the stones over the entrance of the tomb and closed the gulf that contained the life of my life. Then supporting my decrepit fellow mourner, we slowly left the chapel. I felt as I stepped into the open air as if I had quitted in happy nest of repose for a dreary wilderness, a tortuous path, a bitter, joyless, hopeless pilgrimage.

Starting point is 14:00:46 End of Volume 3, Chapter 3 of the Last Man. by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, read by Nicodemus. Volume 3, Chapter 4 of The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Reading by Nicodemus. Volume 3, Chapter 4 of The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Starting point is 14:01:29 our escort had been directed to prepare our abode for the night at the inn opposite the ascent to the castle. We could not again visit the halls and familiar chambers of our home on a mere visit. We had already left forever the glades of Windsor, and all of coppice, flowery hedgerow, and murmuring stream, which gave shape and intensity to the love of our country, and the almost superstitious attachment with which we regarded native England. It had been our intention to have called at Lucy's dwelling in Dachet, and to have reassured her with promises of aid and protection before we repaired to our quarters for the night. Now as the Countess of Windsor and I turned down the steep hill that led from the castle, we saw the children who had just stopped in their caravan at the inn door. They had passed through Dachet without halting. I dreaded to meet them and to be the bearer of my tragic story, so while they were still occupied in the hurry of arrival,

Starting point is 14:02:27 I suddenly left them, and through the snow and clear moonlight air, hastened along the well-known road to datch it. Well known, indeed it was. Each cottage stood on its accustomed site. Each tree wore its familiar appearance. Habit had graven unerasibly on my memory, every turn and change of object on the road. At a short distance beyond the little park was an elm half blown down by a storm, some ten years ago, and still with leafless snow-laden branches it stretched across the pathway which wound through a meadow beside a shallow brook whose brawling was silenced by frost that style that white gait that hollow oak tree which doubtless once belonged to the forest and which now showed in the moonlight its gaping rent to whose fanciful appearance tricked out by the dusk into a resemblance of the human form the children had given the name of falstaff all these objects were as well known to me as the cold hearth of my deserted home,

Starting point is 14:03:27 and every moss-grown wall and plot of orchard ground, alike as twin lambs are to each other in a stranger's eye, yet to my accustomed gaze bore differences, distinction and a name. England remained, though England was dead. It was the ghost of Merry England that I beheld. Under those greenwood shade, passing generations had sported in security and ease. To this painful recognition of the familiar, familiar places, was added a feeling experienced by awe, understood by none.

Starting point is 14:04:00 A feeling as if in some state, less visionary than a dream, and some past real existence, I had seen all I saw with precisely the same feelings as I now beheld them, as if all my sensations were a duplex mirror of a former revelation. To get rid of this oppressive sense, I strove to imagine change in this tranquil spot. This augmented my mood by causing me to bestow more attention on the objects which occasioned me pain. I reached Datchett and Lucy's humble abode, once noisy with Saturday night revelers, or trim and neat on Sunday morning, it had borne testimony to the labors and orderly habits of the housewife.

Starting point is 14:04:41 The snow lay high about the door, as if it had remained unclosed for many days. What scene of death hath Roscous now to act? I muttered to myself as I looked at the dark casements. At first I thought I saw a light in one of them, but it proved to be merely the refraction of the moon beams, while the only sound was the crackling branches as the breeze word the snowflakes from them. The moon sailed high and unclouded in the interminable ether, while the shadow of the cottage lay back on the garden behind. I entered this by the open wicket, and anxiously examined each window. At length I detected a ray of light struggling through a closed shutter in one of the upper rooms. It was a novel feeling, alas, to look at any house and say there dwells its usual inmate.

Starting point is 14:05:30 The door of the house was merely on the latch, so I entered and descended the moonlit staircase. The door of the inhabited room was ajar. Looking in, I saw Lucy sitting as at work at the table on which the light stood. The implements of needlework were about her, but her hand had fallen on her lap, and her eyes, fixed on the ground, showed by their vacancy that her thoughts wandered. traces of care and watching had diminished her former attractions but her simple dress and cap her desponding attitude and the single candle that casted light upon her gave for a moment a picturesque grouping to the whole a fearful reality recalled me from the thought a figure lay stretched on the bed covered by a sheet her mother was dead and lucy apart from all the world deserted and alone watched beside the corpse during the weary night i entered the room and my unexpected appearance at first drew a scream from the lone survivor of a dead nation but she recognized me and recovered herself with the quick exercise of self-control habitual to her

Starting point is 14:06:38 did you not expect me i asked in that low voice which the presence of the dead makes us as it were instinctively assume you are very good replied she to have come yourself i can never thank you sufficiently but it is too late too late cried i what do you mean it is not too late to take you from this deserted place and conduct you to my own loss which i had forgotten as i spoke now made me turn away while choking grief impeded my speech i threw open the window and looked on the cold waning ghastly misshaped circle on high and the chill white earth beneath did the spirit of sweet idris sail along the moon frozen crystal air no no a more genial atmosphere a lovelier habitation was surely hers i indulged in this meditation for a moment and then again addressed the mourner who stood leaning against the bed with the expression of resigned despair of complete misery and a patient sufferance of it which is far more touching than any of the insane ravings or wild gesticulation of untamed sorrow i desired to draw her from this spot but she opposed my wish that class of people persons whose imagination and sensibility have never been taken out of the narrow circle immediately in view, if they possess these qualities to any extent, are apt to pour their influence into the very realities which appear to destroy them, and to cling to these with double tenacity from not

Starting point is 14:08:10 being able to comprehend anything beyond. Thus Lucy, in Desert England, in a dead world, wished to fulfill the usual ceremonies of the dead, such as were customary to the English country people, when death was a rare visitant, and gave us time to receive his dreaded usurpation with pomp and circumstance, going forth in procession to deliver the keys of the tomb into his conquering hand. She had already, alone as she was, accomplished some of these, and the work on which I found her employed was her mother's shroud. My heart sickened at such detail of woe, which a female can endure, but which is more painful to the masculine spirit than deadliest struggle, or throws of unutterable but transient agony. This must not be, I told her, and then, as further inducement,

Starting point is 14:09:01 I communicated to her my recent loss, and gave her the idea that she must come with me to take charge of the orphaned children, whom the death of Idris had deprived of a mother's care. Lucy never resisted the call of a duty, so she yielded, and closing the casements and doors with care, she accompanied me back to Windsor. As we went, she communicated to me the occasion of her mother's death. Either by some mischance she had got sight of Lucy's letter to Idris, or she had overheard her conversation with the countrymen who bore it. However it might be, she obtained a knowledge of the appalling situation of herself and her daughter.

Starting point is 14:09:41 Her aged frame could not sustain the anxiety and horror this discovery instilled. She concealed her knowledge. from Lucy, but brooded over it through sleepless nights, till fever and delirium, swift forerunners of death, disclosed the secret. Her life, which had long been hovering on its extinction, now yielded it once to the united effects of misery and sickness, and that same morning she had died. After the tumultuous emotions of the day, I was glad to find on my arrival at the inn that my companions had retired to rest. I gave Lucy in charge to the Countess of her. I gave Lucy in charge to the countess's attendant, and then sought repose from my various struggles and impatient regrets.

Starting point is 14:10:27 For a few moments, the events of the day floated in disastrous pageant through my brain, till sleep bathed it in forgetfulness. When morning dawned and I awoke, it seemed as if my slumber had endured for years. My companions had not shared my oblivion. Clara's swollen eyes showed that she has passed the night in weeping. The countess looked haggard and wan. her firm spirit had not found relief in tears and she suffered the more from all the painful retrospect and agonizing regret that now occupied her we departed from windsor as soon as the burial rites had been performed for lucy's mother and urged on by an impatient desire to change the scene went forward towards dover with speed our escort having gone before to provide horses finding them either in the warm stables they instinctively sought during the cold weather or standing shivering in the bleak fields ready to surrender their liberty in exchange for offered corn during our ride the countess recounted to me the extraordinary circumstances which had brought her so strangely to my side in the chancel of st george's chapel when last she had taken leave of idris as she looked anxiously on her faded person and pallid countenance she had suddenly been visited by a conviction that she saw her for the last time

Starting point is 14:11:48 it was hard to part with her while under the dominion of this sentiment and for the last time she endeavored to persuade her daughter to commit herself to her nursing permitting me to join adrian idris mildly refused and thus they separated the idea that they should never again meet grew on the countess's mind and haunted her perpetually a thousand times she had resolved to turn back and join us and was again and again restrained by the pride and anger of which she was the slave proud of heart as she was she bathed her pillow with nightly tears and through the day was subdued by nervous agitation and expectation of the dreaded event which she was wholly incapable of curbing she confessed that at this period her hatred of me knew no bounds since she considered me as the sole obstacle to the fulfilment of her dearest wish that of attending upon her daughter in her last moments she desired to express her fears to her son and to seek consolation from his sympathy with or courage from his rejection of her auguries on the first day of her arrival at dover she walked with him on the sea-beach and with the timidity characteristic of passionate and exaggerated feeling was by degrees bringing the conversation to the desired point when she could communicate her fears to him when the messenger who bore my letter announcing our temporary return to windsor came writing down to them he gave some oral account of how he had left us and added that notwithstanding the cheerfulness and good courage of lady idris he was afraid that she would hardly reach windsor alive true said the countess your fears are just she is about to expire as she spoke her eyes were fixed on a tomb-like hollow of the cliff and she saw she averred the same to me

Starting point is 14:13:42 with solemnity, eyedress pacing slowly towards the cave. She was turned from her, her head was bent down, her white dress was such as she was accustomed to wear, except that a thin crape-like veil covered her golden tresses and concealed her as a dim, transparent mist. She looked dejected, as docilely yielding to a commanding power. She submissively entered and was lost in the dark recess. Were I subject to visionary moods, said the venerable lay. as she continued her narrative, I might doubt my eyes and condemn my credulity, but reality is the world I live in, and what I saw I doubt not had existence beyond myself. From that moment I could not rest. It was worth my existence to see her once again before she died.

Starting point is 14:14:31 I knew that I should not accomplish this, yet I must endeavor. I immediately departed for Windsor, and though I was assured that we traveled speedily, it seemed to me that we had to me that that our progress was snail-like, and that delays were created solely for my annoyance. Still, I accused you, and heaped on your head the fiery ashes of my burning impatience. It was no disappointment, though an agonizing pang, when you pointed to her last abode, and words would ill-express the abhorrence I that moment felt towards you, the triumphant impediment to my dearest wishes. I saw her, and anger and hate and injustice, died.

Starting point is 14:15:12 it her beer, giving place at their departure to a remorse, great God that I should feel it, which must last while memory and feeling endure. To medicine such remorse, to prevent awakening love and newborn mildness from producing the same bitter fruit that hate and harshness had done, I devoted all my endeavors to soothe the venerable penitent. Our party was a melancholy one. Each was possessed by regret for what was remedialess, for the absence of his mother even the infant gaiety of Evelyn. Added to this was the prospect of the uncertain future. Before the final accomplishment of any great voluntary change,

Starting point is 14:15:54 the mind vacillates, now soothing itself by fervent expectation, now recoiling from obstacles which seemed never to have presented themselves before with so frightful an aspect. An involuntary tremor ran through me when I thought that in another day we might have crossed the watery barrier and have set forward on that hopeless,

Starting point is 14:16:14 interminable, sad wandering, which but a short time before I regarded as the only relief to sorrow that our situation afforded. Our approach to Dover was announced by the loud roarings of the wintry sea. They were born miles inland by the sound-laden blast, and by their unaccustomed uproar imparted a feeling of insecurity and peril to our stable abode. At first we hardly permitted ourselves to think that any unusual eruption of nature caused this tremendous war of air and water, but rather fancied that we merely listened to what we had heard a thousand times before, when we had watched the flocks of fleece-crowned waves, driven by the winds, come to lament and die on the barren sands and pointed rocks. But we found upon advancing farther that Dover was

Starting point is 14:17:02 overflowed. Many of the houses were overthrown by surges which filled the streets, and with hideous brawling sometimes retreated leaving the pavement of the town bare, till again hurried forward by the influx of ocean, they returned with thundersound to their usurped station. Hardly less disturbed than the tempestuous world of waters was the assembly of human beings, that from the cliff fearfully watched its ravings. On the morning of the arrival of the immigrants, under the conduct of Adrian,

Starting point is 14:17:31 the sea had been serene and glassy. The slight ripples refracted the sunbeams, which shed their radiance through the clear blue frosty air. This placid appearance of nature was hailed as a good augury for the voyage. On the chief immediately repaired to the harbor to examine two steamboats which were moored there. On the following midnight, when all were at rest, a frightful storm of wind and clattering rain and hail first disturbed them, on the voice of one shrieking in the streets that the sleepers must awake or they would be drowned. And when they rushed out, half-clothed to discover the meaning of this alarm,

Starting point is 14:18:07 they found that the tide, rising above every mark, was rushing into the town. They ascended the cliff, but the darkness permitted only the white crest of waves to be seen, while the roaring wind mingled its howlings in dire accord with the wild surges. The awful hour of night, the utter inexperience of many who had never seen the sea before, the wailing of women in the cries of children added to the horror of the tumult. All the following day the same scene continued. When the tide ebbed, the town was left dry. but on its flow it rose even higher than on the preceding night.

Starting point is 14:18:45 The vast ships that lay rotting in the roads were whirled from their anchorage, and driven and jammed against the cliff. The vessels in the harbor were flung on land like seaweed, and there battered to pieces by the breakers. The waves dashed against the cliff, which if any place it had been before loosened now gave way, and the affrighted crowd saw vast fragments of the near-earth fall with crash and roar into the deep. This site operated differently on different persons.

Starting point is 14:19:14 The greater part thought it a judgment of God to prevent or punish our immigration from our native land. Many were doubly eager to quit a nook of ground now become their prison, which appeared unable to resist the inroads of ocean's giant waves. When we arrived at Dover, after a fatiguing day's journey, we all required rest and sleep, but the scene acting around us soon drove away such ideas. We were drawn along with the greater part of our companions to the edge of the cliff, there to listen to and make a thousand conjectures.

Starting point is 14:19:46 A fog narrowed our horizon to about a quarter of a mile, and the misty veil, cold and dense, enveloped sky and sea in equal obscurity. What added to our inquietude was the circumstance that two-thirds of our original number were now waiting for us in Paris, and clinging as we now did most painfully to any addition to our melancholy remnant, this division with the tameless impassable ocean between struck us with a fright. At length, after loitering for several hours on the cliff, we retired to Dover Castle, whose roof sheltered all who breathed the English air and sought the sleep necessary to restore strength and courage

Starting point is 14:20:26 to our worn frames and languid spirits. Early in the morning, Adrian brought me the welcome intelligence that the wind had changed. It had been southwest, it was now northeast. The sky was stripped bare of clouds by the increasing gale, while the tide at its ebb seceded entirely from the town. The change of wind rather increased the fury of the sea, but it altered its late dusky hue to a bright green, and in spite of its unmitigated clamor, its more cheerful appearance instilled hope and pleasure. all day we watched the ranging of the mountainous waves and toward sunset a desire to decipher the promise for the morrow at its setting made us all gather with one accord on the edge of the cliff when the mighty luminary approached within a few degrees of the tempest-tossed horizon suddenly a wonder three other suns alike burning and brilliant rushed from various quarters of the heavens toward the great orb they whirled round it

Starting point is 14:21:27 the glare of light was intense to our dazzled eyes the sun itself seemed to join in the dance while the sea burned like a furnace like all vesuvius alight with flowing lava beneath the horses broke loose from their stalls in terror a herd of cattle panic struck raced down to the brink of the cliff and blinded by light plunged down with frightful yells in the waves below the time occupied by the apparition of these meteors was comparatively short suddenly the three mock suns united in one and plunged into the sea a few seconds afterwards a deafening watery sound came up with the awful peal from the spot where they had disappeared meanwhile the sun disencumbered from his strange satellites paced with its accustomed majesty towards its western home when we dared not trust our eyes late dazzled but it seemed that the sea rose to meet it it mounted higher and higher till the fiery globe was obscured and the wall of water still ascended the horizon. It appeared as if suddenly the motion of Earth was revealed to us, as if no longer we were ruled by ancient laws, but were turned adrift in an unknown region of space.

Starting point is 14:22:41 Many cried aloud that these were no meteors but globes of burning matter, which had set fire to the earth, and caused the vast cauldron at our feet to bubble up with its measureless waves. The day of judgment was come, they have heard, and a few moments would transport us before the awful. countenance of the omnipotent judge, while those less given to visionary terrors declared that two conflicting gales had occasioned the last phenomenon. In support of this opinion, they pointed out the fact that the east wind died away, while the rushing of the coming west

Starting point is 14:23:13 mingled its wild howl with the roar of the advancing waters. Would the cliff resist this new battery? Was not the giant wave far higher than the precipice? Would not our little island be deluged with its approach? The crowd of spectators fled. They were dispersed over the fields, stopping now and then and looking back in terror. A sublime sense of awe calmed the swift pulsations of my heart. I awaited the approach of the destruction menaced, with that solemn resignation which an unavoidable necessity instills. The ocean, every moment, assumed a more terrific aspect, while the twilight was dimmed by the rack which the west wind spread over the sky. By slow degrees, however, as the wave advanced, it took a more mild appearance. Some undercurrent

Starting point is 14:24:02 of air or obstruction in the bed of waters checked its progress, and it sank gradually, while the surface of the sea became uniformly higher as it dissolved into it. This change took from us the fear of an immediate catastrophe, although we were still anxious as to the final result. We continued during the whole night to watch the fury of the sea and the pace of the driving clouds, through whose openings the rare stars rushed impetuously. The thunder of conflicting elements deprived us of all power to sleep. This endured ceaselessly for three days and nights. The stoutest hearts quailed before the savage enmity of nature. Provisions began to fail us, though every day foraging parties were dispersed to the nearer towns.

Starting point is 14:24:49 In vain we schooled ourselves into the belief that there was nothing out of the common order of nature in the strife we witnessed. Our disastrous and overwhelming destiny turned the best of us to cowards. Death had haunted us through the course of many months, even to the narrow strip of time on which we now stood. Narrow indeed and buffeted by storms was our footway overhanging the great sea of calamity. As an unsheltered northern shore is shaken by the wintry wave and frequent storm, storms forevermore, while from the west the loud winds rave, or from the east or mountains whore, the struck and tottering sandbank lave. It required more than human energy to bear up against the menaces of destruction that everywhere surrounded us. After the lapse of three days, the gale

Starting point is 14:25:39 died away. The seagull sailed upon the calm bosom of the windless atmosphere, and the last yellow leaf on the topmost branch of the oak hung without motion. The sea no longer broke with fury, but a swell setting in steadily for shore, with long sweep and sullen burst replaced the roar of the breakers. Yet we derived hope from the change, and we did not doubt that after the interval of a few days, the sea would resume its tranquility. The sunset of the fourth day favored this idea. It was clear and golden. As we gazed on the purple sea, radiant beneath, we were attracted by a novel spectacle. A dark speck, as it neared visibly a boat, rode on the top of the waves, every now and then lost in the steep valleys between. We marked its course with eager questionings, and when we saw that it evidently made for sure, we descended to the only practicable landing place, and hoisted a signal to direct them.

Starting point is 14:26:39 By the help of glasses we distinguished her crew. It consisted of nine men, Englishmen, belonging in truth to the two divisions of our people who had perceived. seated us and had been for several weeks at paris as countrymen was wont to meet countrymen in distant lands did we greet our visitors on their landing with outstretched hands and gladsome welcome they were slow to reciprocate our gratulations they looked angry and resentful not less than the chafed sea which they had traversed with imminent peril though apparently more displeased with each other than with us it was strange to see these human beings who appeared to be given forth by the earth like rare and inestimable plants, full of towering passion and the spirit of angry contests. Their first demand was to be conducted to the Lord Protector of England, so they called Adrian, though he had long discarded the empty title as a bitter mockery of the shadow to which the protector ship was now reduced. They were speedily led to Dover Castle, from whose keep Adrian had watched the movements of the

Starting point is 14:27:42 boat. He received them with the interest and wonder so strange a visitation created, and the confusion occasioned by their angry demands for precedence, it was long before we could discover the secret meaning of this strange scene. By degrees, from the furious declamations of one, the fierce interruptions of another, and the bitter scoffs of a third, we found that they were deputies from our colony at Paris, from three parties there formed, who each with angry rivalry tried to attain a superiority over the other two.

Starting point is 14:28:13 These deputies had been dispatched by them to Adrian, who had been selected arbiter and they had journeyed from paris to calais to the vacant towns and desolate country indulging the while violent hatred against each other and now they pleaded their several causes with unmitigated party spirit by examining the deputies apart and after much investigation we learnt the true state of things at paris since parliament had elected him rylind's deputy all the surviving english had submitted to adrian he was our captain to lead us from our native soil to unknown land our lawgiver and our preserver. On the first arrangement of our scheme of immigration, no continued separation of our members was contemplated, and the command of the whole body of gradual assent of power had its apex in the Earl of Windsor.

Starting point is 14:29:05 But unforeseen circumstances changed our plans for us, and occasioned the greater part of our numbers to be divided for the space of nearly two months from the Supreme Chief. They had gone over in two distinct bodies, and on their arrival at Paris, dissension around. between them. They had found Paris a desert. When first the plague had appeared, the return of travellers and merchants and communications by letter informed us regularly of the ravages made by disease on the continent. But with the increased mortality this intercourse declined and ceased. Even in England

Starting point is 14:29:39 itself, communication from one part of the island to the other became slow and rare. No vessel stemmed the flood that divided Calais from Dover, or if some melancholy voyager we should have wishing to assure himself of the life or death of his relatives, put from the French shore to return among us, often the greedy ocean swallowed his little craft, or after a day or two he was infected by the disorder, and died before he could tell the tale of the desolation of France. We were therefore, to a great degree ignorant of the state of things on the continent, and were not without some vague hope of finding numerous companions in its wide track, but the same causes that had so fearfully diminished the English nation had had even greater scope for mischief

Starting point is 14:30:23 in the sisterland. France was a blank. During the long line of road from Calais to Paris, not one human being was found. In Paris there were a few, perhaps a hundred, who resigned to their coming fate, flitted about the streets of the capital, and assembled to converse of past times, with that vivacity and even gaiety that seldom deserts the individuals of this nation. The English, took uncontested possession of Paris. Its high houses and narrow streets were lifeless. A few pale figures were to be distinguished at the accustomed resort at the Tulliaries. They wondered wherefore the islanders should approach their ill-fated city, for in the excess of wretchedness the sufferers always imagine that their part of the calamity is the bitterest. As when enduring intense pain,

Starting point is 14:31:13 we would exchange the particular torture we writhe under for any other which should visit a different part of the frame. They listened to the account the immigrants gave of their motives for leaving their native land, with the shrug almost of disdain. Return, they said. Return, they said. Return to your island, who sea breezes and division from the continent give some promise of health. If pestilence among you has slain its hundreds, with us it has slain its thousands.

Starting point is 14:31:42 Are you not even now more numerous than we are? A year ago, you would have found only the sick burying the dead. said, Now we are happier, for the pang of struggle has passed away, and the few you find here are patiently waiting the final blow. But you, who are not content to die, breathe no longer the air of France, or soon you'll only be a part of her soil. Thus, by menaces of the sword, they would have driven back those who had escaped from fire. But the peril left behind was deemed eminent by my countrymen. That before them doubtful and distant, and soon other feelings rose to obliterate fear, or to replace it by passions that ought to have had no place among a brotherhood of unhappy survivors of the expiring world. The more numerous divisions of immigrants, which arrived first at Paris, assumed a superiority of rank and power. The second party asserted their independence. A third was formed by a sectarian, a self-erected prophet, who, while he attributed all power and rule to God, strove to get the real command of his comrades into his

Starting point is 14:32:51 own hands. This third division consisted of fewest individuals, but their purpose was more one, their obedience to their leader more entire, their fortitude and courage more unyielding and active. During the whole progress of the plague, the teachers of religion were in possession of great power, a power of good if rightly directed, or of incalculable mischief if fanaticism or intolerance guided their efforts. In the present instance, a worse few feeling than either of these actuated the leader. He was an imposter in the most determined sense of the term, a man who had in early life lost through the indulgence of vicious propensities, all sense of rectitude or self-esteem, and who, when ambition was awakened in him, gave himself

Starting point is 14:33:39 up to its influence unbridled by any scruple. His father had been a Methodist preacher, an enthusiastic man with simple intentions, but whose pernicious doctrines of election and special grace had contributed to destroy all conscientious feeling in his son. During the progress of the pestilence, he had entered upon various schemes by which to acquire adherence and power. Adrian had discovered and defeated these attempts, but Adrian was absent. The wolf assumed the shepherd's garb, and the flock admitted the deception. He had formed a party during the few weeks he had been in Paris, who zealously propagated the creed of his divine mission, and believe that safety and salvation were to be afforded only to those who put their trust in him.

Starting point is 14:34:28 When once the spirit of dissension had arisen, the most frivolous causes gave it activity. The first party, on arriving at Paris, had taken possession of the cheleries. Chance and friendly feeling had induced the second to lodge near them. A contest arose concerning the distribution of the pillage. The chiefs of the first division demanded that the whole should be placed at their disposal. With this assumption, the opposite party refused to comply. When next the latter went to forage, the gates of Paris were shut on them.

Starting point is 14:35:02 After overcoming this difficulty, they marched in a body to the cheleries. They found that their enemies had been already expelled thence by the elect, as the fanatical party designated themselves, who refused to admit any into the palace who did not first abjure obedience to all except God and his delegate on earth, their chief. Such was the beginning of the strife, which at length proceeded so far

Starting point is 14:35:27 that the three divisions, armed, met in the Place Vendom, each resolved to subdue by force the resistance of its adversaries. They assembled their muskets were loaded and even pointed at the breasts of their so-called enemies, one word had been sufficient and there the last of mankind would have burthened their souls with the crime of murder and dipped their hands in each other's blood a sense of shame a recollection that not only their cause but the existence of the whole human race was at stake entered the breast of the leader of the more numerous party he was aware that if the ranks were thinned no other recruits could fill them up that each man was a priceless gem and a kingly crown which if destroyed

Starting point is 14:36:11 the earth's deep entrails could yield no paragon he was a young man and had been hurried on by presumption on the notion of his high rank and superiority to all other pretenders now he repented his work he felt that all the blood about to be shed would be on his head with sudden impulse therefore he spurred his horse between the bands and having fixed a white handkerchief on the point of his uplifted sword thus demanded parley the opposite leaders obeyed the signal he spoke with warmth he reminded them of the oath all the chiefs had taken to submit to the lord protector he declared their present meeting to be an act of treason and mutiny he allowed that he had been hurried away by passion but that a cooler moment had arrived and he proposed that each party should send deputies to the earl of windsor inviting his interference and offering submission to his decision his offer was accepted so far that each leader consented to command a retreat and moreover agreed that after the approbation of their several parties had been consulted they should meet that night on some neutral spot to ratify the truce at the meeting of the chiefs this plan was finally concluded upon the leader of the fanatics indeed refused to admit the arbitration of adrian he sent ambassadors rather than deputies to assert his claim not plead his cause the truce was to continue until the first of february when the bands were again to assemble on the place vendome it was of the utmost consequence therefore that adrian should arrive in paris by that day since an hare might turn the scale and peace scared away by intestine broils might only return to watch by the silent dead it was now the twenty eighth of january every vessel stationed near dover had been beaten to pieces and destroyed by the furious storms

Starting point is 14:38:06 I have commemorated. Our journey, however, would admit of no delay. That very night, Adrian and I, and twelve others, either friends or attendants, put off from the English shore and the boat that had brought over the deputies. We all took our turn at the oar, and the immediate occasion of our departure, affording us abundant matter for conjecture and discourse, prevented the feeling that we left our native country, depopulate England, for the last time, to enter deeply into the minds of the greater part of our number. It was a serene starlight night, on the dark line of the English coast continued for some time visible at intervals as we rose on the broad back of the waves. I exerted myself with my long oar to give swift impulse to our skiff, and while the waters

Starting point is 14:38:53 splashed with melancholy sound against its sides, I looked with sad affection on this last glimpse of sea-girt England, and strained my eyes not too soon to lose sight of the castellated cliff, which rose to protect the land of heroism and beauty from the inroads of ocean, that, turbulent as I had lately seen it, required such cyclopean walls for its repulsion. A solitary seagull winged its flight over our heads, to seek its nest in a cleft of the precipice. Yes, thou shalt revisit the land of thy birth, I thought, as I looked invidiously on the airy voyager. But we shall, never more. Tomb of Idris, farewell.

Starting point is 14:39:34 grave in which my heart lies sepulture farewell for ever we were twelve hours at sea and the heavy swell obliged us to exert all our strength at length by mere dent of rowing we reached the french coast the stars faded and the gray morning cast a dim veil over the silver horns of the waning moon the sun rose broad and red from the sea as we walked over the sands to calais our first care was to procure horses and And although wearied by our night of watching and toil, some of our party immediately went in quest of these in the wide fields of the unenclosed and now barren plain around Calais. We divided ourselves, like seamen, into watches, and some reposed while others prepared the morning's repast. Our foragers returned at noon with only six horses.

Starting point is 14:40:28 On these, Adrian and I, and four others, proceeded on our journey towards the great city, which its inhabitants had fondly named the capital. of the civilized world. Our horses had become, through their long holiday, almost wild, and we crossed a plain round Calais with impetuous speed. From the height near Boulogne,

Starting point is 14:40:48 I turned again to look on England. Nature had cast a misty pall over her. Her cliff was hidden. There was spread the watery barrier that divided us, never again to be crossed. She lay on the ocean plain. In the great pool, a swan's nest, ruined the nest alas the swans of albion had passed away forever an uninhabited rock in the wide pacific which had remained since the creation uninhabited unnamed unmarked would be of as much account in the world's future history as desert england

Starting point is 14:41:23 our journey was impeded by a thousand obstacles as our horses grew tired we had to seek for others and ours were wasted while we exhausted our artifices to allure some of these enfranchised slaves of man to resume the yoke, or as we went from stable to stable through the towns, hoping to find some who had not forgotten the shelter of their native stalls. Our ill success in procuring them obliged us continually to leave some one of our companions behind, and on the 1st of February Adrian and I entered Paris, wholly unaccompanied. The serene morning had dawned when we arrived at St. Dennis, and the sun was high, when the clamour of voices in the clash as we feared of weapons guided us to where our countrymen had assembled on the Place Vendom. We passed a knot of Frenchmen,

Starting point is 14:42:12 who were talking earnestly of the madness of the insular invaders, and then coming by a sudden turn upon the place, we saw the sun glitter and drawn swords and fixed bayonets, while yells and clamors rent the air. It was a scene of unaccustomed confusion in these days of depopulation. Roused by fancied wrongs and insulting scoffs, the opposite parties had rushed to attack each other, other, while the elect, drawn up apart, seemed to wait an opportunity to fall with better

Starting point is 14:42:41 advantage on their foes, when they should have mutually weakened each other. A merciful power interposed, and no blood was shed, for while the insane mob were in the very act of attack, the females, wives, mothers, and daughters rushed between. They seized the bridles, they embraced the knees of the horsemen, and hung on the necks or in weaponed arms of their enraged relatives. The shrill female scream was mingled with the manly shout And formed the wild clamor that welcomed us on our arrival Our voices could not be heard in the tumult Adrian, however, was eminent for the white charger he rode

Starting point is 14:43:18 Spurring him he dashed into the midst of the throng He was recognized and a loud cry raised for England and the protector The late adversaries warmed to affection at the sight of him Joined in heedless confusion and surrounded him The women kissed his hands and the edges of his garments, nay, his horse received tribute of their embraces. Some wept their welcome. He appeared an angel of peace descending among them, and the only danger was that his mortal nature would be demonstrated by his suffocation from the kindness of his friends. His voice was at length heard and obeyed.

Starting point is 14:43:56 The crowd fell back, the chiefs alone rallied round him. I had seen Lord Raymond ride through his lines, his north. look of victory and majestic mean obtained the respect and obedience of all. Such was not the appearance or influence of Adrian. His slight figure, his fervent look, his gesture, more of deprecation than rule, were proofs that love, unmingled with fear, gave him dominion over the hearts of a multitude, who knew that he never flinched from danger, nor was actuated by other motives than care for the general welfare.

Starting point is 14:44:29 No distinction was now visible between the two parties, late ready to shed each other's blood, for though neither would submit to the other, they both yielded ready obedience to the Earl of Windsor. One party, however, remained cut off from the rest, which did not sympathize in the joy exhibited on Adrian's arrival, or imbibed the spirit of peace, which fell like a dew upon the softened hearts of their countrymen. At the head of this assembly was a ponderous, dark-looking man, whose malign eye surveilled. conveyed with gloating delight the stern looks of his followers. They had hitherto been inactive, but now perceiving themselves to be forgotten in the universal Jubilee, they advanced with

Starting point is 14:45:10 threatening gestures. Our friends had, as it were in wanton contention, attacked each other. They wanted but to be told that their cause was one, for it to become so. Their mutual anger had been a fire of straw, compared to the slow-burning hatred they both entertained for these seceders, who seized a portion of the world to come, there to entrench and encassalate themselves, and to issue with fearful Sally and appalling denunciations on the mere common children of the earth. The first advance of the little army of the elect reawakened their rage. They grasped their arms and waited but their leader's signal to commence the attack, when the clear tones of Adrian's voice were heard, commanding them to fall back.

Starting point is 14:45:54 With confused murmur and hurried retreat, as the wave ebbs clamorously from the sands it lately covered, Our friends obeyed. Adrian rode singly into the space between the opposing bands. He approached the hostile leader, as requesting him to imitate his example, but his look was not obeyed, and the chief advanced, followed by his whole troop.

Starting point is 14:46:17 There were many women among them who seemed more eager and resolute than their male companions. They pressed round their leader, as if to shield him, while they loudly bestowed on him every sacred denomination and epithet of worship. Adrian met them halfway. They halted. What, he said, do you seek? Do you require anything of us that we refuse to give

Starting point is 14:46:40 and that you are forced to acquire by arms and warfare? His questions were answered by a general cry in which the words election, sin, and red-right arm of God could alone be heard. Adrian looked expressly at their leader, saying, Can you not silence your followers? Mine, you perceive, obey me. The fellow answered by a scowl,

Starting point is 14:47:03 and then perhaps fearful that his people should become auditors of the debate he expected to ensue, he commanded them to fall back and advanced by himself. What I again ask, said Adrian, do you require of us? Repentance, replied the man, whose sinister brow gathered clouds as he spoke. Obedience to the will of the Most High Made manifest to these his elected people Do we not all die through your sins O generation of unbelief

Starting point is 14:47:31 And have we not a right to demand Of your repentance and obedience? And if we refuse them, What then? His opponent inquired mildly. Beware, cried the man. God hears you and will smite your stony heart And his wrath. His poisoned arrows fly. His dogs of death are unleashed.

Starting point is 14:47:50 We will not perish unrevenged, and mighty will our avenger be when he descends invisible majesty and scatters destruction among you. My good fellow, said Adrian, with quiet scorn, I wish that you were ignorant only, and I think it would be no difficult task to prove to you that you speak of what you do not understand. On the present occasion, however, it is enough for me to know that you seek nothing of us, and heaven is our witness we seek nothing of you. I should be sorry to embitter by strife the few days that we any of us may have here to live. When there, he pointed downwards, we shall not be able to contend, while here we need not. Go home or stay, pray to your God in your own mode, your friends may do the like. My horizons consist in peace and goodwill, in resignation and hope. Farewell.

Starting point is 14:48:46 He bowed slightly to the angry disputant who was about to reply. and turning his horse down Rue Saint-Anor called on his friends to follow him. He rode slowly to give time to all to join him at the barrier, and then issued his orders that those who yielded obedience to him should rendezvous at Versailles. In the meantime, he remained within the walls of Paris until he had secured the safe retreat of all.

Starting point is 14:49:12 In about a fortnight, the remainder of the immigrants arrived from England, and they all repaired to Versailles. Apartments were prepared for the family of the family of the army. the Protector and the Grand Trianon, and there, after the excitement of these events, we reposed amidst the luxuries of the departed Bourbons. End of Volume 3, Chapter 4, of The Last Man, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Read by Nicodemus. Volume 3, Chapter 5, of The Last Man.

Starting point is 14:49:51 This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org. Reading by Robin Cotter, November 2007. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley. Volume 3, Chapter 5. After the repose of a few days, we held a council to decide on our future movements. Our first plan had been to quit our wintry native life.

Starting point is 14:50:29 latitude, and seek for our diminished numbers, the luxuries and delights of a southern climate. We had not fixed on any precise spot as the termination of our wanderings, but a vague picture of perpetual spring, fragrant groves and sparkling streams, floated in our imagination, to entice us on. A variety of causes had detained us in England, and we had now arrived at the middle of February. If we pursued our original project, we should find ourselves in a worse situation than before, having exchanged our temperate climate for the intolerable heats of a summer in Egypt or Persia. We were therefore obliged to modify our plan, as the season continued to be inclement, and it was determined that we should await the arrival of spring

Starting point is 14:51:21 in our present abode. And so order our future. movements as to pass the hot months in the icy valleys of Switzerland, deferring our southern progress until the ensuing autumn, if such a season was ever again to be beheld by us. The castle and town of Versailles afforded our numbers ample accommodation, and foraging parties took it by turns to supply our wants. There was a strange and appalling motley in the situation of these the last of the race. At first I likened it to a colony which borne over the far seas struck root for the first time in a new country. But where was the bustle and industry characteristic of such an assemblage? The rudely constructed dwelling, which was to suffice till a more commodious

Starting point is 14:52:12 mansion could be built, the making out of fields, the attempt at cultivation, the eager curiosity to discover unknown animals and herbs? The excursions for the sake of exploring the country? Our habitations were palaces, our food was ready stored in granaries, there was no need of labor, no inquisitiveness, no restless desire to get on.

Starting point is 14:52:37 If we had been assured that we should secure the lives of our present numbers, there would have been more vivacity and hope in our councils. We should have discussed as to the period when the existing produce for the man's sustenance would no longer suffice for us, and what mode of life we should then adopt. We should have considered more carefully our future plans, and debated concerning the spot where we should in future dwell.

Starting point is 14:53:03 But summer and the plague were near, and we dared not look forward. Every heart sickened at the thought of amusement. If the younger part of our community were ever impelled by youthful and untamed hilarity, to enter on any dance or song, to cheer the melancholy time, they would suddenly break off, checked by a mournful look or agonizing sigh from anyone among them, who was prevented by sorrows and losses from mingling in the festivity. If laughter echoed under our roof, yet the heart was vacant of joy, and whenever it chanced that I witnessed such attempts at pastime,

Starting point is 14:53:43 they increased instead of diminishing my sense of woe. In the midst of the pleasure-hunting throng I would close my eyes and see before me the obscure cavern where was garnered the mortality of Idris, and the dead lay around, mouldering in hushed repose. When I again became aware of the present hour, softest melody of Lydian flute, or harmonious maze of graceful dance, was but as the demonic chorus in the wolf's glen, and the caperings of the reptiles that surrounded the magic circle. My dearest interval of peace occurred, when released from the obligation of associating with the crowd, I could repose in the dear home where my children lived. Children, I say, for the tenderest emotions of paternity, bound me to Clara. She was now fourteen, sorrow and deep insight into the scenes around her, calmed the restless spirit of girlhood, while the remembrance of her father, whom she idolized, and respect for me and Adrian, implanted a high sense of duty in her young heart.

Starting point is 14:54:53 Though serious she was not sad, the eager desire that makes us all, when young, plume our wings and stretch our necks, that we may more swiftly alight tiptoe on the height of maturity, was subdued in her by early experience. All that she could spare of overflowing love from her parents' memory, and attention to her living relatives, was spent upon religion. This was the hidden law of her heart, which she concealed with childish reserve, and cherished the more because it was secret. What faith so entire, what charity so pure, what hope so fervent as that of early youth? And she, all love, all tenderness, and trust, who from infancy had been tossed on the wide

Starting point is 14:55:40 sea of passion and misfortune, saw the finger of apparent divinity in all, and her best hope was to make herself acceptable to the power she worshipped. Evelyn was only five years old, his joyous heart. heart was incapable of sorrow, and he enlivened our house with the innocent mirth incident to his years. The aged Countess of Windsor had fallen from her dream of power, rank, and grandeur. She had been suddenly seized with the conviction that love was the only good of life, virtue the only ennobling distinction and enriching wealth. Such a lesson had been taught her by the dead lips of her neglected daughter, and she devoted herself,

Starting point is 14:56:24 with all the fiery violence of her character, to the obtaining the affection of the remnants of her family. In early years the heart of Adrian had been chilled towards her, and, though he observed a due respect, her coldness mixed with the recollection of disappointment and madness, caused him to feel even pain in her society. She saw this and yet determined to win his love. The obstacle served the rather to excite her ambition. As Henry, Emperor, of Germany lay in the snow before Pope Leo's gate for three winter days and nights, so did she, in humility, wait before the icy barriers of his closed heart, till he, the servant of love, and prince of tender courtesy, opening it wide for her admittance, bestowing with fervency and

Starting point is 14:57:14 gratitude the tribute of filial affection she merited. Her understanding, courage, and presence of mind became powerful auxiliaries to him in the difficult task of ruling the tumultuous crowd, which were subjected to his control, in truth, by a single hair. The principal circumstances that disturbed our tranquility during this interval originated in the vicinity of the imposter prophet and his followers. They continued to reside at Paris, but missionaries from among them often visited Versailles, and such was the power of assertions, however false, yet vehemently iterated, over the ready credulity of their ignorant and fearful, that they seldom failed in drawing over to their party,

Starting point is 14:58:03 some from among our numbers. An instance of this nature coming immediately under our notice, we were led to consider the miserable state in which we should leave our countrymen. When we should, at the approach of summer, move on towards Switzerland, and leave a deluded crew behind us in the hands of their miscreant leader. The sense of the smallness of our numbers and expectation of decrease pressed upon us, and, while it would be a subject of congratulation to ourselves to add one to our party, it would be doubly gratifying to rescue from the pernicious influence of superstition and unrelenting tyranny, the victims that now, though voluntarily enchained, groaned beneath it.

Starting point is 14:58:47 If we had considered the preacher as since in a belief of his own denunciations, or only moderately actuated by kind feeling in the exercise of his assumed powers. We should have immediately addressed ourselves to him, and endeavored with our best arguments to soften and humanize his views. But he was instigated by ambition. He desired to rule over these last stragglers from that fold of death. His projects went so far as to cause him to calculate that, if from these crushed remains a few survived, so that a new race should spring up, he, by holding tight the reins of belief, might be remembered by the post-pestilential race as a patriarch, a prophet, nay, a deity.

Starting point is 14:59:31 Such as of old among the post-deluvians were Jupiter the conqueror, Serapis the lawgiver, and Vishnu, the preserver. These ideas made him inflexible in his rule, and violent in his hate of any who presumed to share with him his usurped empire. It is a strange fact, but incontestable, that the philanthropist, who, ardent in his desire to do good, who, patient, reasonable, and gentle, yet disdains to use other argument than truth, has less influence over men's minds than he who, grasping and selfish, refuses not to adopt any means, nor awaken any passion, nor diffuse any falsehood for the advancement of his cause. If this, from time and memorial has been the case, the contrast was infinitely greater,

Starting point is 15:00:23 now that the one could bring harrowing fears and transcendent hopes into play, while the other had few hopes to hold forth, nor could influence the imagination to diminish the fears which he himself was the first to entertain. The preacher had persuaded his followers that their escape from the plague, the salvation of their children, and the rise of a new race of men from, their seed depended on their faith in and their submission to him. They greedily imbibed this belief, and their overweening credulity even rendered them eager to make converts to the same faith. How to seduce any individuals from such an alliance of fraud was a frequent subject of Adrian's

Starting point is 15:01:07 meditations and discourse. He formed many plans for the purpose, but his own troop kept him in full occupation to ensure their fidelity and safety, beside which the preacher was as cautious and prudent as he was cruel. His victims lived under the strictest rules and laws, which either entirely imprisoned them within the Tulleries, or let them out in such numbers, and under such leaders, as precluded the possibility of controversy. There was one among them, however, whom I resolved to save.

Starting point is 15:01:40 She had been known to us in happier days. Idris had loved her, and her excellent nature made it peculiarly lamentable that she should be sacrificed by this merciless cannibal of souls. This man had between two and three hundred persons enlisted under his banners. More than half of them were women. There were about fifty children of all ages, and not more than eighty men. They were mostly drawn from that, which when the distinctions existed was denominated the lower rank of society. The exceptions consisted of a few high-born females, who, panic-struck and tamed by sorrow, had joined them. Among these was one, young, lovely, and enthusiastic, whose very goodness made

Starting point is 15:02:26 her a more easy victim. I have mentioned her before. Juliet, the youngest daughter, and now sole relic of the ducal house of Elle. There are some beings whom fate seems to select on whom to pour, in unmeasured portion, the vials of her. wrath, and whom she bathes even to the lips in misery. Such a one was the ill-starred Juliet. She had lost her indulgent parents, her brother and sisters, companions of her youth, in one fell swoop that had been carried off from her. Yet she had again dared to call herself happy, united to her admirer, to him who possessed and filled her whole heart. She yielded to the Lithian powers of love, and knew and felt only his life and

Starting point is 15:03:12 presence. At the very time when, with keen delight, she welcomed the tokens of maternity, this sole prop of her life failed. Her husband died of the plague. For a time she had been lulled in insanity. The birth of her child restored her to the cruel reality of things, but gave her at the same time an object for whom to preserve at once life and reason. Every friend and relative had died off, and she was reduced to solitude and penury, deep melancholy and angry impatience distorted her judgment, so that she could not persuade herself to disclose her distress to us. When she heard of the plan of universal emigration, she resolved to remain behind with her child, and alone in wide England to live or die, as fate might decree, beside the grave of her beloved.

Starting point is 15:04:06 She had hidden herself in one of the many habitations of London. It was she who rescued my Idris on the fatal 20th of November, though my immediate danger and the subsequent illness of Idris caused us to forget our hapless friend. This circumstance had, however, brought her again in contact with her fellow creatures. A slight illness of her infant proved to her that she was still bound to humanity by an indestructible tie, to present her. of this little creature's life, became the object of her being, and she joined the first division of migrants who went over to Paris. She became an easy prey to the Methodist, her sensibility and acute fears, rendered her accessible to every impulse. Her love for her child made her eager to cling to the merest straw held out to save him. Her mind once unstrung, and now tuned by roughest in harmonious hands, made her credulous, beautiful as fabled goddess, with voice of unrivaled sweetness, burning with new lighted enthusiasm, she became a steadfast proselyte,

Starting point is 15:05:15 and powerful auxiliary to the leader of the elect. I had remarked her in the crowd on the day we met on the place van Dome, and, recollecting suddenly her providential rescue of my lost one, On the night of the 20th of November, I reproached myself for the neglect and ingratitude, and felt impelled to leave no means that I could adopt untried, to recall her to her better self, and rescue her from the fangs of the hypocrite destroyer. I will not, at this period of my story, record the artifices I used to penetrate the asylum of the tooleries, or give what would be a tedious account of my stratagem's disappointments, and perseverance. I at last succeeded in entering these walls, and roamed its halls and corridors,

Starting point is 15:06:05 in eager hope to find my selected convert. In the evening I contrived to mingle unobserved with the congregation, which assembled in the chapel to listen to the crafty and eloquent harangue of their prophet. I saw Juliet near him, her dark eyes fearfully impressed with the restless glare of madness were fixed on him. She held her infant, not yet a year old, in her arms, and care of it alone could distract her attention from the words to which she eagerly listened. After the sermon was over, the congregation dispersed, all quitted the chapel, except she whom I sought. Her babe had fallen asleep, so she placed it on a cushion and sat on the floor beside, watching its tranquil slumber. I presented myself to her, for a moment,

Starting point is 15:06:54 natural feeling produced a sentiment of gladness, which disappeared again, when, with ardent and affectionate exhortation, I besought her to accompany me in flight, from this den of superstition and misery. In a moment she relapsed into the delirium of fanaticism, and, but that her gentle nature forbade, would have loaded me with execrations. She conjured me, she commanded me to leave her. Beware, oh, beware! she cried. fly while yet your escape is practicable. Now you are safe, but strange sounds and inspirations come on me at times, and if the eternal should an awful whisper reveal to me his will, that to save my child you must be sacrificed, I would call in the satellites of him you call the tyrant. They would tear you limb

Starting point is 15:07:43 from limb, nor would I hallow the death of him who Idris loved by a single tear. She spoke hurriedly with tuneless voice and wild look. Her child awoke and frightened began to cry. Each sob went to the ill-fated mother's heart, and she mingled the epithets of endearment she addressed to her infant, with angry commands that I should leave her. Had I had the means I would have risked all, have torn her by force from the murderer's den,

Starting point is 15:08:13 and trusted to the healing balm of reason and affection. But I had no choice. no power even of longer struggle. Steps were heard along the gallery, and the voice of the preacher drew near. Juliet, straining her child in a close embrace, fled by another passage. Even then I would have followed her, but my foe and his satellites entered, I was surrounded and taken prisoner. I remembered the menace of the unhappy Juliet, and expected the full tempest of the man's vengeance,

Starting point is 15:08:46 and the awakened wrath of his followers, to fall. fall instantly upon me. I was questioned. My answers were simple and sincere. His own mouth condemns him, exclaimed the imposter. He confesses that his intention was to seduce from the way of salvation, our well-beloved sister in God. Away with him to the dungeon. Tomorrow he dies the death. We are manifestly called upon to make an example, tremendous and appalling, to scare the children of sin from our asylum of the saved. My heart revolted from his hypocritical jargon, but it was unworthy of me to combat in words with the ruffian, and my answer was cool, while far from being possessed with fear, me thought, even at the worst, a man to himself,

Starting point is 15:09:33 courageous and determined, could fight his way, even from the boards of the scaffold, through the herd of these misguided maniacs. Remember, I said, who I am, and be well assured that I shall not die unavenged. Your legal magistrate, the Lord Protector, knew of my design, and is aware that I am here. The cry of blood will reach him, and you and your miserable victims will long lament the tragedy you are about to act. My antagonist did not deign to reply, even by a look. You know your duty, he said to his comrades, obey. In a moment I was thrown on the earth, bound, blindfolded, and hurried away, liberty of limb and sight was only restored to me when, surrounded by dungeon walls, dark and impervious, I found myself a prisoner, and alone.

Starting point is 15:10:26 Such was the result of my attempt to gain over the proselyte of this man of crime. I could not conceive that he would dare put me to death. Yet I was in his hands. The path of his ambition had ever been dark and cruel. His power was founded upon fear, the one word which might cause me to die. eye, unheard, unseen, in the obscurity of my dungeon, might be easier to speak than the deed of mercy to act. He would not risk probably a public execution, but a private assassination would at once terrify any of my companions from attempting a like feat, at the same time that a cautious line of conduct might enable him to avoid the inquiries and the vengeance of Adrian. Two months ago in a vault more obscure than the one I now inhabited, I had revolved the design of quietly laying me down to die. Now I shuddered at the approach of my fate. My imagination was busied in shaping forth the kind of death he would inflict. Would he allow me to wear out life

Starting point is 15:11:29 with famine? Or was the food administered to me to be medicine with death? Would he steal on me in my sleep, or should I contend to the last, with my murderers knowing, even if he were the food administered to me, Even while I struggled, that I must be overcome? I lived upon an earth whose diminished population a child's arithmetic might number. I had lived through long months with death stalking close at my side, while at intervals the shadow of his skeleton shape darkened my path. I had believed that I despised the grim phantom, and laughed his power to scorn. Any other fate I should have met with courage, nay have gone out gallantly to encounter. But to be murdered thus at the midnight hour by cold-blooded assassins,

Starting point is 15:12:15 no friendly hand to close my eyes, or receive my parting blessing, to die in combat, hate, and execration. Ah, why my angel love didst thou restore me to life, when already I had stepped within the portals of the tomb, now that so soon again I was to be flung back a mangled corpse. Hours passed, centuries, could I give words to the many thoughts which occupied me in endless succession during this interval, I should fill volumes. The air was dank, the dungeon floor mildewed, and icy cold. Hunger came upon me, too, and no sound reached me from without. Tomorrow the ruffian had declared that I should die. When would tomorrow come? Was it not already here? My door was about to be opened. I heard the key turn, and the bars and bolts slowly removed. The opening of intervening passages permitted sounds for, the interior of the palace to reach me. And I heard the clock strike one. They come to murder me,

Starting point is 15:13:15 I thought. This hour does not be fit a public execution. I drew myself up against the wall opposite the entrance. I collected my forces. I rallied my courage. I would not fall a tame prey. Slowly the door receded on its hinges. I was ready to spring forward to seize and grapple with the intruder, till the sight of who it was changed at once the temper of my own. my mind. It was Juliet herself. Pale and trembling she stood, a lamp in her hand, on the threshold of the dungeon, looking at me with wistful countenance. But in a moment she reassumed her self-possession, and her languid eyes recovered their brilliancy. She said, I am come to save you, Verney. And yourself also, I cried, dearest friend, can we indeed be saved? Not a word, she replied.

Starting point is 15:14:07 follow me. I obeyed instantly. We threaded, with light steps, many corridors, ascended several flights of stairs, and passed through long galleries. At the end of one she unlocked a low portal. A rush of wind extinguished our lamp. But in lieu of it, we had the blessed moonbeams and the open face of heaven. Then first Juliet spoke, You are safe, she said. God bless you. Farewell. I seized her reluctant "'Dear friend,' I cried, "'misguided victim, "'do you not intend to escape with me? "'Have you not risked all in facilitating my flight?

Starting point is 15:14:46 "'And do you think that I will permit you to return, "'and suffer alone the effects of that miscreant's rage? "'Never!' "'Do not fear for me,' replied the lovely girl mournfully, "'and do not imagine that without the consent of our chief "'you could be without these walls. "'It is he that has saved you. "'He assigned to me the part of leading you hither,

Starting point is 15:15:06 because I am best acquainted with your motives for coming here, and can best appreciate his mercy in permitting you to depart. And are you, I cried, the dupe of this man? He dreads me alive as an enemy, and dead he fears my avengers. By favoring this clandestine escape, he preserves a shoe of constancy to his followers, but mercy is far from his heart. Do you forget his artifices, his cruelty and fraud? As I am free, so are you. Come, Juliet, the mother of our lost Idris will welcome you. The noble Adrian will rejoice to receive you. You will find peace and love, and better hopes than fanaticism can afford. Come and fear not, long before day we shall be at Versailles. Close the door on this abode of crime. Come, sweet Juliet, from hypocrisy and guilt to the

Starting point is 15:16:00 society of the affectionate and good. I spoke her. but with fervor, and while, with gentle violence, I drew her from the portal. Some thought, some recollection of past scenes of youth and happiness, made her listen and yield to me. Suddenly she broke away with the piercing shriek. "'My child! My child! He has my child! My darling girl is my hostage!' She darted from me into the passage. The gate closed between us. She was left in the fangs of this man of crime, a prisoner, still to inhale, the pestilessing. The pestilessing. influential atmosphere, which adhered to his demonic nature. The unimpeded breeze played on my cheek.

Starting point is 15:16:41 The moon shone graciously upon me. My path was free. Glad to have escaped, yet melancholy in my very joy, I retrod my steps to Versailles. End of Volume 3, Chapter 5. Volume 3, Chapter 6 of The Last Man. This is a Libervox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information are to volunteer, please visit Libervox.org. Recording by Stephanie DuPaul de Martin. The Last Man by Mary Wollstone Craftshelly. Volume 3, Chapter 6 Eventful winter passed, winter, the respite of our ills. By degrees the sun,

Starting point is 15:17:34 which, with slant beams had before yielded the more extended rain tonight, lengthened his diurnal journey and mounted his highest throne. At once the foxes of Earth's new beauty and her lover. We who, like flies that congregate upon a dry rock at the ebbing of the tide, had played wantonly with time, allowing our passions, our hopes, and our mad desires to rule us, now heard the approaching roar of the ocean of destruction, and would have fled to some sheltered crevice before the first wave broke over us. We resolved without delay to commence our journey to Switzerland. We became eager to leave France. Under the icy vaults of the Glaciers, beneath the shadow of the pines, the swing of whose mighty branches was arrested by a load of snow.

Starting point is 15:18:20 Beside the streams whose intense cold proclaimed their origin to be from the slow melting piles of condulated waters, amidst frequent storms which might purify the air, we should find health, if in truth health were not herself diseased. We began our preparations at first with alacrity. We did not now bid adieu to our native country, to the graves of those we loved, to the flowers and streams and trees which had lived beside us from infancy. Small sorrow would be ours on leaving Paris, a scene of shame when we remembered our late contentions,

Starting point is 15:18:56 and thought that we left behind a flock of miserable, deluded victims, bending under the tyranny of a selfish impostor. Small pangs should we feel in leaving the gardens, woods, in halls of the palaces of the bourbons at Versailles, which we feared would soon be tainted by the dead, when we looked forward to valleys lovelier than any garden, to mighty forests and halls, built not for mortal majesty, but palaces of nature's own,

Starting point is 15:19:21 but the alp of marmorial whiteness for their walls, the sky for their roof. Yet our spirits flagged as the day drew near which we had fixed for our departure. Tire visions and evil auguries of such things were, thickened round us, so that in vain might men say, these are their reasons, they are natural.

Starting point is 15:19:42 we felt them to be ominous and dreaded the future event and chained to them that the night owl should screech before the noonday sun that the hardwing bat should wheel around the bed of beauty that muttering thunder should in early spring startle the cloudless air that sudden and exterminating blight should fall in the tree and shrub were unaccustomed, but physical events, less horrible than the mental creations of almighty fear. Some had sight of funeral processions, and faces all begrimmed with tears, which flitted through the long avenues of the gardens, and drew aside the curtains of the sleepers at dead of night. Some heard wailing and cries in the air, a mournful chant would stream through the dark atmosphere, as if spirits above sang the requiem of the human race.

Starting point is 15:20:27 What was there in all this, but that fear created other sense, within our frames, making us see, hear and feel what was not. What was this but the action of diseased imaginations, and childish credulity? So might it be. But what was most real was the existence of these very fears, the staring looks of horror, the faces pale even to ghastliness, the voices struck dumb with harrowing dread. Of those among us who saw and heard these things. Of this number was Adrian, who knew the delusion, yet could not cast off the clinging terror. Even ignorant infancy appeared with timorous shrieks and convulsions to acknowledge the presence of unseen powers. We must go. In change of scene and occupation, and such security as we

Starting point is 15:21:14 still hope to find, we should discover a cure for these gathering horrors. On mustering our company, we found them to consist of fourteen hundred souls, men, women, and children. Until now, therefore, we were undiminished in numbers, except by the desertion of those who had attached to themselves to the imposter prophet and remained behind in Paris. About 50 French joined us. Our order of March was easily arranged. The ill success which had attended our division determined Adrian to keep all in one body. I with a hundred men went forward first as purveyor, taking the road of the Coat d'Or d'Aux d'Igne d'ol over the juror to Geneva. I was to make arrangements at every ten miles for the accommodation of such numbers as I found

Starting point is 15:21:59 the town or village would receive, leaving behind a messenger with a written order, signifying how many were to be quartered there. The remainder of our tribe was then divided into bands of fifty each, every division containing eighteen men, and the remainder consisting of women and children. Each of these was headed by an officer who carried the role of names by which they were each day to be mustered. If the numbers were divided at night, in the morning those in the van waited for those in the rear. At each of the large towns before mentioned, we were all to assemble, and a conclave of the principal officers would hold counsel for the General Wheel. I went first, as I said, Adrian last. His mother, with Clara and Evelyn under her

Starting point is 15:22:41 protection, remained also with him. Thus her order, being determined, I departed. My plan was to go at first no further than Fontainebleau, where in a few days I should be joined by Adrian, before I took flight again further eastward. My friend accompanied me a few miles from Versailles. and in a tone of uncustom despondency uttered a prayer for our speedy arrival among the alps accompanied with an expression of vain regret that we were not already there in that case i observed we can quicken our march why i dare to a plan whose dilatory proceeding you already disapprove nay replied he it is too late now a month ago and we were masters of ourselves now he turned his face from me though gathering twilight had already veiled its expression He turned it yet more away, as he added. A man died of the plague last night. He spoke in a smothered voice,

Starting point is 15:23:35 and then suddenly clasping his hands, he exclaimed, swiftly, most swiftly, advances the last hour for us all. As the stars vanish before the sun, so will his near approach destroy us. I have done my best. With grasping hands in impotent strength, I have hung on the wheel of the chariot of plague, but she drags me along with it,

Starting point is 15:23:56 while, like juggernaut, She proceeds crushing out the being of all who strew the high road of life. What that it were over, what that her procession achieved, we had all entered the tomb together. Tears streamed from his eyes. Again and again, he continued. Will the tragedy be acted? Again I must hear the groans of the dying, the wailing of the survivors, again witness the pains, which consummating all, envelope and eternity in their evanescent existence.

Starting point is 15:24:24 Why am I reserved for this? why the tainted weather of the flock am i not struck to earth among the first it is hard very hard for one of woman born to endure all that i endure hitherto with an undaunted spirit and a high feeling of duty and worth adrian had fulfilled his self-imposed task i had contemplated with him reverence and a fruitless desire of imitation i now offered a few words of encouragement and sympathy he hid his face in his hands and while he strove to calm himself he ejaculated For a few months, yet for a few months more, let not, oh God, my heart fail, or my courage be bowed down. Let not sights of intolerable misery madden this half-crazed brain, or cause this frail heart to beat against its prison bound so that it burst. I have believed it to be my destiny, to guide and rule the last of the race of man, till death extinguish my government, and to this destiny I submit. Pardon me, Vernet, I pain you, but I will no longer complain. Now I am myself again, or rather I am better than myself. You have known how from my childhood aspiring thoughts and high desires have warred

Starting point is 15:25:37 with inherent disease and overstrained sensitiveness till the latter became victors. You know how I placed this wasted feeble hand on the abandoned helm of human government. I have been visited at times by intervals of fluctuation. Yet, until now, I have felt as if a superior and defatigable spirit had taken up its abode within me, or rather incorporated itself with my weaker being. The holy visitant has for a time slept, perhaps to show me how powerless I am without its inspiration. Yet stay for a while, O power of goodness and strength, disdain not yet this rent shrine of fleshy mortality, O immortal capability. While one fellow creature remains to who made, can be afforded, stay by and prop your shattered falling engine. His vehemence and voice,

Starting point is 15:26:27 broken by irrepressible sighs, sunk to my heart. His eyes gleamed in the gloom of night, like two earthly stars, and his form dilating, his countenance beaming, truly had almost seemed as if at his eloquent appeal a more than mortal spirit entered his frame, exulting him above humanity. He turned quickly towards me and held out his hand. For well, Vernet, he cried, brother of my love, farewell. No other weak expression must cross these lips, I am alive again. To our tasks, to our combats with her unvanguishable foe, for to the last I will struggle against her. He grasped my hand and bent a look on me, more fervent and animated than any smile, than turning his horse's head he touched the animal with a spur and was out of sight in a moment.

Starting point is 15:27:13 A man last night had died of the plague. The quiver was not emptied, nor the bowen strung. We stood as marks like Parthian pestilence aimed and shot, insatiated by conquest, unobstructed by the heaps of slain. A sickness of the soul, contagious even to my physical mechanism, came over me. My knees knocked together, my teeth chattered, the current of my blood, clotted by sudden cold, painfully forced its sway from my heavy heart. I did not fear for myself, but it was misery to think that we could not even save this remnant.

Starting point is 15:27:45 That those I loved might in a few days be as clay-corpsed, cold as Idris in her antique tomb, nor could strength of body or energy of mind ward off the blow. A sense of degradation came over me. Did God create man merely in the end to become dead earth in the midst of healthful vegetating nature? Was he of no more account to his maker than a field of corn blighted in the ear? Were our proud dreams thus to fade? Our name was written a little lower than the angels, and behold we were no better than Ephemera. We had called ourselves the paragon of animals, and lo, we were a quintessence of dust. We were pined that the pyramids had outlasted the unbalmed body of their builder. Alas, the mere shepherd's

Starting point is 15:28:29 hut of straw we passed on the road contained in its structure the principle of greater longevity than the whole race of man. How reconciled is sad change to our past aspirations, to our apparent powers! Sudden and internal voice, articulate and clear, seemed to say, thus from eternity it was decreed, the steeds that bear time onwards had this hour and this fulfillment in chain to them, since the void brought forth its burthen. Would you read backwards the unchangeable laws of necessity? Mother of the world, servant of the omnipotent, eternal, changeless necessity, who with busy fingers sittest ever weaving the indissoluble chain of events, I will not murmur at thy acts, if my human mind cannot acknowledge that all that is is right. Yet since what is must be, I will

Starting point is 15:29:18 sit amidst the ruins and smile. Truly we were not born to enjoy, but to submit, and to hope. Will not the reader tire, if I should minutely describe her long-drawn journey from Paris to Geneva, if, day by day, I should record, in the form of a journal, the thronging miseries of her lot, could my hand write, or language afford words to express, the variety of her woe, the hustling and crowding of one deplorable event upon another? Patience, O reader, whoever thou art, wherever thou dwellest. Whether of every spiritual or sprung from some surviving pair, thy nature will be human, thy habitation the earth. Thou wilt hear, read of the acts of the extinct race, and will ask wonderingly if they who suffered that thou findest recorded,

Starting point is 15:30:04 were a frail flesh and soft organization like thyself. Most true they were, weep, therefore. For surely solitary being thou wilt be of gentle disposition. Shed compassionate tears, but the while lend thy attention to the tale, and learn the deeds and sufferings of thy predecessors. Yet the last events that marked our progress through France were so full of strange horror and gloomy misery, that I dare not pause too long in the narration. If I were to dissect each incident, every small fragment of a second would contain an harrowing tale, whose minutest word would curdle the blood in thy young veins, it is right that I should erect for thy instruction this monument of the foregone race,

Starting point is 15:30:45 but not that I should drag thee through the wards of an hospital, nor the secret chambers of the charnel-house. This tale, therefore, shall be rapidly unfolded. Images of destruction, pictures of despair, the procession of the last triumph of death, shall be drawn before thee, swift as the rack driven by the north wind along the blotted splendor of the sky. We'd grown fields, desolate towns, the wild approach of riderless horses, had now become habitual to my eyes. nay sights far worse of the unburied dead and human forms which were strewned on the roadside and on the steps of once frequented habitations where, through the flesh that wastes away, beneath the parching sun, the whitening bones start forth and molder in the sable dust.

Starting point is 15:31:31 Sites like these had become, ah wo the while, so familiar that we had ceased to shudder our spore stung horses to sudden speed as we passed them. France, in its best days, at least that part of France through which we traveled, had been a cultivated desert, and the absence of enclosures, of cottages, and even of peasantry was saddening to a traveler from sunny Italy or busy England. Yet the towns were frequent and lively, and the cordial politeness and ready smile of the wooden-shoed peasant restored good humor to this planetic. Now the old woman sat no more at the door with her distaff, the lank beggar no longer asked charity in the courtier-like phrase, nor on holidays did the peasantry thread with slow grace the mazes of the dance.

Starting point is 15:32:15 Silence, melancholy bride of death, went in procession with him from town to town through the spacious region. We arrived at Fontainebleau and speedily prepared for the reception of our friends. On mustering our numbers for the night, three were found missing. When I inquired for them, the man to whom I spoke uttered the word, plague, and fell at my feet in convulsions, he also was infected. There were hard faces around me, for among my troop were sailors who had crossed the line times unnumbered, soldiers who in Russia and far America had suffered famine, cold in danger, and men still sterner featured once-nightly depredators in her overgrown metropolis. Men bred from their cradle to see the whole machine of society at work for their destruction. I looked round and saw upon the faces of all horror

Starting point is 15:33:02 and despair written and glaring characters. We passed four days at Fontainebleau. Several sickened and died, and in the meantime neither Adrian nor any of our friends appeared. My own troop was in commotion. To reach Switzerland, to plunge into rivers of snow and to dwell in caves of ice, became the mad desire of all. Yet we had promised to wait for the Earl, and he came not. My people demanded to be led forward, rebellion, if so we might call what was the mere casting way of straw-formed shackles, appeared manifestly among them. They would away on the word without a leader. The only chance of safety, the only hope of preservation from every form of indescribable suffering, was our keeping together. I told them this, while the most determined

Starting point is 15:33:47 among them answered with sullenness that they could take care of themselves and replied to my entreaties with scoffs and menaces. At length on the fifth day, a messenger arrived from Adrian bearing letters which directed us to proceed to Okser, and there await his arrival, which would only be deferred for a few days. Such was the tenor of his public letters. Those privately delivered to me detailed at length the difficulties of his situation, and left the arrangement of my future plans to my own discretion. His account of the state of affairs at Versailles was brief,

Starting point is 15:34:19 but the oral communications of his messenger filled up his omissions, ensured me that perils of the most frightful nature were gathering around him. At first the reawakening of the plague had been concealed, but the number of deaths increasing, the secret was not. divulged, and the destruction already achieved was exaggerated by the fears of the survivors. Some emissaries of the enemy of mankind, the accursed impostors, were among them instilling their doctrine, that safety in life could only be ensured by submission to their chief, and they succeeded so well that soon, instead of desiring to proceed to Switzerland, a major part of

Starting point is 15:34:55 the multitude, weak-minded women and dastardly men, desire to return to Paris, and by ranging themselves under the banners of the so-called prophet, and by a cowardly worship of the principle of evil, purchase respite, as they hoped, from impeding death. The discord and tumult induced by these conflicting fears and passions detained Adrian. It required all his ardor in pursuit of an object and his patience under difficulties to calm and animate such a number of his followers as might counterbalance the panic of the rest, and lead them back to the means from which a lone safety could be derived. He had hoped immediately to follow me, but being defeated in his intention, he sent his messenger urging me to secure my own troop at such a distance from Versailles as to

Starting point is 15:35:41 prevent the contagion of rebellion from reaching them, promising at the same time to join me the moment a favorable occasion should occur, by means of which he could withdraw the main body of the immigrants from the evil influence at present exercised over them. I was thrown into a most painful state of uncertainty by these communications. My first impulse was that we should all return to Versailles, there to assist in extricating our chief from his perils. I accordingly assembled my troop and proposed to them this retrograde movement instead of the continuation of our journey to Okser. With one voice they refused to comply. The notion circulated among them was that the ravages of the plague alone detained the protector. They opposed as order to my

Starting point is 15:36:24 request. They came to resolve to proceed without me, should I refuse to accompany them. Argument and adjuration were lost on these dastards. The continual diminution of their own numbers, affected by pestilence, added a sting to their dislike of delay. And my opposition only served to bring their resolution to a crisis. That same evening they departed towards Oxerre. Oaths, as from soldiers to their general, had been taken by them. These they broke. I also had engaged myself not to desert them. It appeared to me inhuman to ground any infraction of my word on theirs. The same spirit that caused them to rebel against me

Starting point is 15:37:02 would impel them to desert each other, and the most dreadful sufferings would be the consequence of their journey in their present unordered and chiefless array. These feelings for a time were paramount, and in obedience to them I accompanied the rest towards Okser. We arrived the same night at Villeneuve Laguerre, a town at the distance of four posts. from Fontainebleau, when my companions had retired to rest, and I was left alone to revolve

Starting point is 15:37:28 and ruminate upon the intelligence I received of Adrian's situation, another view of this subject presented itself to me. What was I doing? And what was the object of my present movements? Apparently I was to lead this troop of selfish and lawless men towards Switzerland, leaving behind my family and my selected friend, which subject as they were hourly to the death that threatened to all I might never see again. Was it not my first duty to assist the protector setting an example of attachment and duty? At a crisis such as the one I had reached, it is very difficult to balance nicely opposing interests, and that towards which our inclinations lead us obstinately assumes the appearance of selfishness, even when we meditate a sacrifice.

Starting point is 15:38:13 We are easily led at such times to make a compromise of the question, and this was my present resource. that very night to ride to Versailles, if I found affairs less desperate than I now deemed them, I would return without delay to my troop. I had a vague idea that my arrival at that town would occasion some sensation more or less strong, of which we might profit, for the purpose of leading forward the vacillating multitude. At least no time was to be lost. I visited the stables, I saddled my favorite horse, and vaulting on his back, without giving myself time for further reflection or hesitation, quitted Villeneuve Laguerre on my return. to Versailles.

Starting point is 15:38:52 I was glad to escape from my rebellious troop and to lose sight for a time of the strife of evil with good, where the former forever remained triumphant. I was stung almost to madness by my uncertainty concerning the fate of Adrian and grew reckless of any event, except what might lose or preserve my unequalled friend. With an heavy heart that sought relief in the rapidity of my course, I rode through the night to Versailles. I spurred my horse, who addressed his free limbs to speak. and tossed his gallant head in pride. The constellations reeled swiftly by, swiftly, each tree and stone

Starting point is 15:39:27 and landmark fled past my onward career. I bared my head to the rushing wind, which bathed my brow in delightful coolness. As I lost sight of Vilnev La Guillaas, I forgot the sad drama of human misery. Me thought it was happiness enough to live, sensitive the while of the beauty of the verdure clad earth, the star besangled sky, and the tameless wind that lent animation to the whole. My horse grew tired, an eye forgetful of his fatigue, still as he lagged, cheered him with my voice, and urged him with the spur. He was a gallant animal, and I did not wish to exchange him for any chance beast I might light on, leaving him never to be refound. All night we went forward, in the morning he became sensible that we approached Versailles to reach which, as his home,

Starting point is 15:40:13 he mustered his flagging strength. The distance we had come was not less than fifty miles, yet he shot down the long boulevard swift as an arrow. Poor fellow, as I dismounted at the gate of the castle, he sunk on his knees, his eyes were covered with a film. He fell on his side, a few gasps, inflated his noble chest, and he died. I saw him expire with an anguish, unaccountable even to myself, the spasm that was as wrenching of some lemon agonizing torture,

Starting point is 15:40:42 but it was brief as it was intolerable. I forgot him as I swiftly darted through the open portal and up the majestic stairs of this castle of victories. Heard Adrian's voice, O fool, O woman nurtured, effeminate and contemptible being! I heard his voice and answered it with convulsive shrieks. I rushed into the hall of Hercules where he stood surrounded by a crowd whose eyes turned in wonder on me,

Starting point is 15:41:07 reminded me that on the stage of the world a man must repress such girlish ecstasies. I would have given worlds to have embraced him, I dared not. Half in exhaustion, half voluntarily, I threw myself at my length on the ground. Dare I disclose the truth to the gentle offspring of solitude? I did so that I might kiss the deer in sacred earth he trod. I found everything in a state of tumult.

Starting point is 15:41:32 An emissary of the leader of the elect had been so worked up by his chief and by his own fanatical creed as to make an attempt on the life of the protector and preserver of lost mankind. His hand was arrested while in the act of Pongarding the Earl. The circumstance had caused the clamor I heard on my arrival at the castle, and the confused assembly of persons that I found assembled in the Sal D'Igul. Although superstition and demoniac furry had crept among the immigrants,

Starting point is 15:41:58 yet several adhered with fidelity to their noble chieftain, and many whose faith and love had been unhinged by fear, felt all their latent affection rekindled by this detestable attempt. A phalanx of faithful breasts closed round him, the wretch who, although a prisoner in bonds, vaunted his design and madly claimed the crown of martyrdom, would have been torn to pieces had not his intended victim interposed. Adrian, springing forward, shielded him with his own person,

Starting point is 15:42:27 and commanded with energy the submission of his infuriate friends. At this moment I had entered. and peace were at length restored in the castle, and then Adrian went from house to house, from troop to troop to soothe the disturbed minds of his followers, and recall them to their ancient obedience. But the fear of immediate death was still rife amongst these survivors of the world's destruction. The horror occasioned by the attempted assassination passed away. Each eye turned towards Paris. Men love a prop so well that they will lean on a pointed poison spear, and such was he the imposter who, with fear of hell for his scourge, most ravenous wolf, played the driver to a

Starting point is 15:43:08 credulous flock. It was a moment of suspense that shook even the resolution of the unyielding friend of man. Adrian, for one moment, was about to give in, to cease the struggle and quit, with a few adherence to the deluded crowd, leaving them a miserable prey to their passions, and to the worst tyrant who excited them. But again, after a brief fluctuation of purpose, he resumed his courage and resolves, sustained by the single. of his purpose and the entried spirit of benevolence which animated him. At this moment, as an omen of excellent import, his wretched enemy pulled destruction on his head, destroying with his own hands the dominion he had erected. His grandhold upon the minds of men took its rise

Starting point is 15:43:50 from the doctrine inculcated by him, that those who believed in and followed him were the remnant to be saved, while all the rest of mankind were marked out for death. Now at the time of the flood, the omnipotent repented him that he had created man, and as then with water, now with the arrows of pestilence, was about to annihil now at the time of the flood, the omnipotent repented him that he had created man, and as then with water, now with the hours of pestilence, was about to annihilate all, except those who obeyed his decrees promulgated by the Ipsy-dixit prophet. It is impossible to say on what foundations this man built his hopes of being able to carry on such an imposter. It is likely that he was fully aware of the lie which murderous nature might give to his

Starting point is 15:44:34 assertions, and believed it to be the cast of a die, whether he should in future ages be reverenced as an inspired delegate from heaven, or be recognized as an imposter by the present dying generation. At any rate, he resolved to keep up the drama to the last act. When on the first approach of summer, the fatal disease again made its ravages among the followers of Adrian, the impostor exultingly proclaimed the exemption of his own congregation from the universal calamity. He was believed. His followers, hitherto shut up in Paris, now came to Versailles. Mingling with the coward band there assembled, they reviled their admirable leader, and asserted their own superiority in exemption. At length the plague, slow-footed,

Starting point is 15:45:17 but sure in her noiseless advance, destroyed the illusion, invading the congregation of the elect, and showering promiscuous death among them. Their leader endeavored to conceal this event. He had a few followers who, admitted into the arcana of his wickedness, could help him in the execution of his nefarious designs. Those who sickened were immediately and quietly withdrawn, the cord in a midnight grave disposed of them forever, while some plausible excuse was given for their absence. At last a female whose maternal vigilance subdued even the effects of the narcotics administered to her, became a witness of their murderous designs on her only child. Mad with horror she would have burst among her deluded fellow victims, and wildly shrieking, have awaked the dull ear of night with the history of the fiend-like crime, when the imposter in his last act of rage and desperation plunged a poignard in her bosom,

Starting point is 15:46:13 thus wounded to death, her garments dripping with her own life-blood, bearing her strangled infant in her arms, beautiful and young as she was, Juliette, for it was she, denounced to the host of deceived believers the wickedness of their leader. He saw the aghast looks of her auditors, changing from horror to fury. The names of those already sacrificed were echoed by their relatives, now assured of their loss. The wretch with that energy of purpose, which had borne him thus far in his guilty career, saw his danger, and resolved to evade the worst forms of it.

Starting point is 15:46:47 He rushed on one of the foremost, seized a pistol from his girdle, and his loud laugh of derision mingled with the report of the weapon with which he destroyed himself. They left his miserable remains even where they lay. They placed the corpse of poor Juliet and her babe upon a beer, and all, with hearts subdued to saddest regret, in long procession walked towards Versailles. They met troops of those who had quitted the kindly protection of Adrian, and were journeying to join the fanatics.

Starting point is 15:47:16 The tale of horror was recounted, all turned back, and thus at last, accompanied by the undiminished numbers of surviving humanity, and preceded by the mournful emblem of the recovered reason, they appeared before Adrian, and again and forever vowed obedience to his commands, and fidelity to his cause. End of Chapter 6. Volume 3, Chapter 7 of The Last Man. This is a Libervox recording.

Starting point is 15:47:51 All Libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Stephanie DuPaul de Martin. The Last Man by Mary Walsoncraft Shelley, Volume 3, Chapter 7. These events occupied so much time that June had numbered more than half its days before we again commenced our long protracted journey. The day after my return to Versailles, six men from among those I had left at Villeneuve

Starting point is 15:48:22 Le Guillard arrived with intelligence that the rest of the troop had already proceeded toward Switzerland. We went forward in the same track. It is strange after an interval of time to look back on a period which, though shorted itself, appeared when an actual progress to be drawn out interminably. By the end of July we entered Dijon. By the end of July those hours, days, and weeks had mingled with the ocean of forgotten time, which in their passage teemed with fatal events in agonizing sorrow. By the end of July, little more than a month had gone by, if man's life were measured by the rising and setting of the sun. But alas, in that interval, ardent youth had become grey-haired. Furrows deep and unerascible were trenched in the blooming

Starting point is 15:49:07 cheek of the young mother. The elastic limbs of early manhood paralyzed as by the burden of years, assumed the decrepitude of age. Nights passed during whose fatal darkness the sun grew old before it rose. In burning days to cool whose baleful heat the balmy eve, lingering far in eastern climbs came lagging and ineffectual. Days in which the dial radiant in its noonday station move not its shadow the space of a little hour, until a whole life of sorrow had brought the sufferer to an untimely grave. We departed from Versailles' 1500 souls. We set out on the 18th of June. We made a long procession in which was contained every dear relationship or tie of love that existed in human society. Fathers and husbands with guardian care gathered their deers,

Starting point is 15:49:54 or relatives around them. Wives and mothers looked for support to the manly form beside them, and then, with tender anxiety, bent their eyes on the infant troop around. They were sad, but not hopeless. Each thought that someone would be saved, each with that pertinacious optimism, which to the last characterized her human nature, trusted that their beloved family would be the one preserved. We passed through France and found it empty of inhabitants. Some one or two natives survived in the larger towns which they roamed through like ghosts. We received therefore small increase to our numbers, and such decrease through death that at last it became easier to count the scanty list of survivors. As we never deserted any of the sick until their death permitted us to commit their remains

Starting point is 15:50:41 to the shelter of a grave, our journey was long, while every day a frightful gap was made in our troop. They died by tens, by fifties, by hundreds. No mercy was shown by death. We ceased to expect it, and every day welcomed the sun with the feeling that we might never see it rise again. The nervous terrors and fearful visions which had scared us during the spring continued to visit our coward troop during this sad journey. Every evening brought its fresh creation of specters. A ghost was depicted by every blighted tree, and appalling shapes were manufactured from each shaggy bush.

Starting point is 15:51:16 By degrees these common marvels palled on us, and then other wonders were called into being. Once it was confidently asserted that the sun rose an hour later than its seasonable time, again it was discovered that he grew paler and paler. That shadows took an uncommon appearance. It was impossible to have imagined during the usual calm routine of life men had before experienced the terrible effects produced by these extravagant delusions. In truth, of such little worth our senses, when unsupported by concurring testimony,

Starting point is 15:51:48 that it was with utmost difficulty I kept myself free from the belief in supernatural events, to which the major part of our people readily gave credit. Being one sane amidst the crowd of the mad, I hardly dared assert to my own mind, that the vast luminary had undergone no change, that the shadows of night were unthickened by innumerable shapes of awe and terror, or that the wind, as it sung in the trees or whistled round an empty building, was not pregnant with sounds of wailing and despair. Sometimes realities took ghostly shapes, and it was impossible for one's blood not to curdle at the perception of an evident mixture of what we knew to be true, with the visionary semblance of all that we feared. Once at the dusk of the evening, we saw a figure all in white apparently of more than human stature, flourishing about the road, now throwing up its arms, now leaping to an astonishing height in the air, then turning round several times successively, then raising itself to its own.

Starting point is 15:52:46 full height and gesticulating violently. Our troop on the alert to discover and believe in the supernatural made a halt at some distance from this shape, and as it became darker, there was something appalling even to the incredulous, in the lonely specter whose gambols, if they hardly accorded with spiritual dignity, were beyond human powers. Now it leapt right up in the air, now sheer over a high edge, and was again the moment after in the road before us. By the time I came up, the fright experience by the spectators of this ghostly exhibition, began to manifest itself in the flight of some, and the close huddling together of the rest. Our goblin now perceived us, he approached, and, as we drew reverentially back, made a low bow. The sight was irresistibly ludicrous,

Starting point is 15:53:34 even to our hapless band, and his politeness was hailed by a shout of laughter. Then again springing up as a last effort it sunk to the ground and became almost invisible through the dusky night. This circumstance again spread silence and fear through the troop. The more courageous at length advanced, and, rising the dying wretch, discovered the tragic explanation of this wild scene. It was an opera dancer, and had been one of the troop which deserted from Villeneuve Laguerre, falling sick he had been deserted by his companions. In an access of delirium, he had fancied himself on the stage, and, poor fellow, his dying

Starting point is 15:54:10 sense eagerly accepted the last human applause that could ever be bestowed on his grace and agility. At another time we were haunted for several days by an apparition, to which our people gave the appellation of the Black Spectre. We never saw it except at evening, when his coal black steed, his morning dress, and plume of black feathers, had a majestic and awe-striking appearance. His face, one said, who had seen it for a moment, was ashy pale. He had lingered far behind the rest of his troop, and suddenly, at a turn in the road, saw the Black Spectre coming towards him. He hid himself in fear, and the horse and his rider slowly passed, while the moonbeams fell on the face of the ladder, displaying its unearthly you.

Starting point is 15:54:54 Sometimes at dead of night, as we watched the sick, we heard one galloping through the town. It was the black spectre come in token of inevitable death. He grew giant tall to vulgar eyes, an icy atmosphere they said surrounded him. When he was heard, all animals shuddered, and the dying knew that their last hour was come. It was death himself, they declared, come visibly to seize on subject earth, and while at once are decreasing numbers, sole rebels to his law. One day at noon we saw a dark mass on the road before us, and, coming up, beheld the black spectre fallen from his horse, lying in the agonies of disease upon the ground. He did not survive many hours, and his last words disclosed the secret of his

Starting point is 15:55:39 mysterious conduct. He was a French noble of distinction, who, from the effects plague, had been left alone in his district. During many months he had wandered from town to town, from province to province, seeking some survivor for a companion, and abhorring the loneliness to which he was condemned. When he discovered her troop, fear of contagion conquered his love of society. He dared not join us, yet he could not resolve to lose sight of us, soul human beings who besides himself existed in wide and fertile friends. So he accompanied us in the spectral guise I have described, till pestilence gathered him to a larger congregation, even that of dead mankind. It had been well if such vain terrors could have distracted our thoughts from more

Starting point is 15:56:24 tangible evils, but these were too dreadful and too many not to force themselves into every thought, every moment of our lives. We were obliged to halt at different periods for days together, Another and yet another was consigned as a clod to the vast clod which had been once our living mother. Thus we continued travelling during the hottest season, and it was not till the first of August that we, the emigrants, reader, there were just 80 of us in number, entered the gates of Dijon. We had expected this moment with eagerness, for now we had accomplished the worst of our drear journey, and Switzerland was near at hand. Yet how could we congratulate ourselves on any event thus imperfectly fulfilled?

Starting point is 15:57:05 Were these miserable beings who worn and wretched, pass in sorrowful procession, the sole remnants of the race of man, which, like flood, had once spread over and possessed the whole earth? It had come down clear and unimpeded, from its primal mountain source and errorat, and grew from puny streamlet to a vast perennial river, generation after generation flowing on ceaselessly. The same but diversified, it grew and swept onwards towards the absorbing ocean, whose dim shores we now reached. It had been the mere plaything of nature when first it crept out of uncreative void into light. But thought brought forth power and knowledge, and, glad with these, the race of man assumed dignity and authority. It was then no longer the mere gardener of earth,

Starting point is 15:57:51 or the shepherd of her flocks. It carried with it an imposing a majestic aspect. It had a pedigree in illustrious ancestors. It had its gallery of portraits, its monumental inscriptions, its records and titles. This was all over, now that the ocean of death had sucked in the slackening tide, and its source was dried up. We first had been an adieu to the state of things which, having existed many thousand years, seemed eternal. Such a state of government, obedience, traffic, and domestic intercourse, as had moulded our hearts and capacities as far back as memory could reach. Then to patriotic zeal, to the arts, to reputation, to enduring fame, to the name of country we had bidden for well. We saw depart all hope of retrieving our ancient state, all expectation except the

Starting point is 15:58:39 feeble one of saving our individual lives from the wreck of the past. To preserve these we had quitted England. England no more, for without her children, what name could that bear an island claim? With tenacious grasp we clung to such rule and order as could best save us, trusting that, if a little colony could be preserved, that would suffice at some remoter period to restore the lost community of mankind. But the game is up. We must all die, nor leave survivor nor hair to the wide inheritance of earth. We must all die. The species of man must perish, his frame of exquisite workmanship, the wondrous mechanism of his senses, the noble proportion of his godlike limbs. His mind, the throne king of these, must perish. Will the earth still keep her place among the planets?

Starting point is 15:59:26 Will she still journey with unmarked regularity around the sun? Will the seasons change, the trees adorn themselves with leaves and flowers shed their fragrance and solitude. Will the mountains remain unmoved and streams still keep a downward course towards the vast abyss? Will the tides rise and fall and the winds fan universal nature? Will beasts pasture, birds fly and fishes swim when man the the lord possessor, perceiver, and recorder of all these things, has passed away, as though he had never been? Oh, what mockery is this? Surely death not death and humanity is not extinct. but merely passed into other shapes, unsubjected to our perceptions. Death is a vast portal, and higher road to life.

Starting point is 16:00:10 Let us hasten to pass, let us exist no more in this living death, but die that we may live. We had longed with inexpressible earnestness to reach Dijon, since we had fixed on it, as a kind of station in our progress. But now we entered it with a torpor more painful than acute suffering. We had come slowly, but irrevocably, to the opinion that our utmost efforts would not perverse a one human being alive. We took our hands, therefore, away from the long grass-bredder, and the frail vessel on which we floated seemed the government over her suspended, to rush, pro foremost,

Starting point is 16:00:44 into the dark abyss of the billows, a gush of grief, a wanton profusion of tears, and vain laments, and overflowing tenderness, and passionate but fruitless clinging to the priceless few that remained, was followed by languor and recklessness. During this disastrous journey, we lost all those, not of our own family, to whom we had particularly attached ourselves among the survivors. They were not well to fill these pages with a mere catalogue of losses. I cannot refrain from this last mention of those principally dear to us. The little girl whom Adrian had rescued from utter desertion, during our ride through London on the 20th of November,

Starting point is 16:01:21 die at Oxerre. The poor child had attached herself greatly to us, and the suddenness of her death added to our sorrow. In the morning we had seen her apparently in health, the evening Lucy before we retired to rest, visited our quarters to say that she was dead. Poor Lucy herself only survived till we arrived at Dijon. She had devoted herself throughout to the nursing the sick and attending the friendless. Her excessive exertions brought on a slow fever, which ended in the dread disease whose approach soon released her from her

Starting point is 16:01:52 sufferings. She had throughout been endeared to us by her good qualities, by her ready and cheerful execution of every duty, and mild acquiescence in every turn of adversity. When we consigned her to the tomb, we seemed at the same time to bid a final adieu to those peculiarly feminine virtues conspicuous in her. Uneducated and unpretending as she was, she was distinguished for patience, forbearance, and sweetness. These, with all their train of qualities peculiarly English, would never again be revived for us. This type of all that was most worthy of admiration in her class among my countrywoman, was placed under the sod of desert france, and it was as a second separation from our country to have lost sight of her forever.

Starting point is 16:02:38 The Countess of Windsor died during her abode at Lijon. One morning I was informed that she wished to see me. Her message made me remember that several days had elapsed since I had last seen her. Such a circumstance had often occurred during our journey when I remained behind to watch to their clothes, the last moments of someone, of her hapless comrades, and the rest of the troop passed on before me. But there was something in the manner of her messenger that made me suspect that all was not right. A caprice of the imagination caused me to conjecture that some ill had occurred to Clara or Evelyn, rather than to this aged lady. Our fears forever on the stretch demanded a nourishment of horror, and it seemed too natural an occurrence, too like past times,

Starting point is 16:03:22 for the old to die before the young. I found the venerable mother of my eidress lying on a couch. Her tall and mass-yated figure stretched out, her face fallen away, from which the nose stood out in sharp profile, and her large dark eyes hollow and deep, gleaned with such light as may edge a thunder-cloud at sunset. All was shrivelled and dried up except these lights. Her voice, too, was fearfully changed,

Starting point is 16:03:47 and she spoke to me at intervals. I am afraid, said she, that it is self-revelled. in me to have asked you to visit the old woman again before she dies, yet perhaps it would have been a greater shock to hear suddenly that I was dead than to see me first thus. I clasped her shrivel hand. Are you indeed so ill? I asked. Do you not perceive death in my face, replied she? It is strange, I ought to have expected this, and yet I confess it has taken me unaware. I never clung to life for enjoyed it till these last months, while among those I senselessly deserted. And it is hard to be snatched immediately away.

Starting point is 16:04:27 I am glad, however, that I am not a victim of the plague. Probably I should have died at this hour, though the world continued as it was in my youth. She spoke with difficulty, and I perceived that she regretted the necessity of death, even more than she cared to confess, and she had not to complain of an undue shortening of existence. Her faded person showed that life had naturally spent itself. We had been alone at first, now Clara entered. The countess turned to her with a smile and took the hand of this lovely child. Her rosy at palm and snowy fingers contrasted with relaxed fibers and yellow hue of those of her aged friend.

Starting point is 16:05:06 She bent to kiss her touching her withered mouth with the warm, full lips of youth. Vernet, said the Countess, I need not recommend this dear girl to you. For your own sake, you will preserve her. Were the world as it was, I should have a thousand sage precautions to impress, that one so sensitive, good and beauteous, might escape the dangers that used to lurk for the destruction of the fair and excellent. This is all nothing now. I commit you, my kind nurse, to your uncle's cure. To yours I entrust the dearest relic of my better self. Be to Adrian,

Starting point is 16:05:40 sweet one, which you have been to me, enliven his sadness with your sprightly sallies, soothe his anguish by your sober and inspired converse. When he is dying, nurse him as you have done me. Clara burst into tears. Kind girl, said the Countess, do not weep for me. Many dear friends are left to you. And yet, cried Clara, you talk of their dying also. This is indeed cruel.

Starting point is 16:06:05 How could I live if they were gone? If it were possible for my beloved protector to die before me, I could not nurse him. I could only die too. The venerable lady survived this scene only 24 hours. She was the last tie binding us to the ancient state of things. It was impossible to look on her and not call to mind in their wanted guise, events and persons, as alien to our present situation, as the disputes of Themistocles and Aristides,

Starting point is 16:06:34 or the wars of the two roses in our native land. The crown of England had pressed her brow, the memory of my father and his misfortunes, the vain struggles of the late king, the images of Raymond, Devatney, and Perdita, who had lived in the world's prime, were brought vividly before us. We consigned her to the oblivious tomb with reluctance, and when I turned from her grave, Janus veiled his retrospective face, that which gaze on future generations had long lost its faculty. After remaining a week at Dijon, until thirty of our number deserted the vacant ranks of life,

Starting point is 16:07:07 we continued our way towards Geneva. At noon on the second day we arrived at the foot of Jura. We halted here during the heat of the day. Here 50 human beings, 50, the only human beings that survived of the food teeming earth. Assemble to read in the looks of each other ghastly plague, or wasting sorrow, desperation or worse, carelessness of future or present evil.

Starting point is 16:07:30 Here we assembled at the foot of this mighty wall of mountain, under a spreading walnut tree, a brawling stream refreshed the green sward by its sprinkling, and the busy grasshopper chirped among the time. We clustered together a group of wretch sufferers. A mother cradle in her enfeebled arms, the child, last of many, whose glazed eye was about to close forever.

Starting point is 16:07:52 Here beauty, late glowing and youthful lustre and consciousness, now wan and neglected, knelt fanning with uncertain motion, the beloved, who lay striving to paint his features, distorted by illness with a thankful smile. There, an hard-featured weather-worn veteran, having prepared his meal, sat, his head dropped on his breast, the useless knife falling from his grasp, his limbs utterly relaxed, as thought of wife and child and dearest relative, all lost, passed across his recollection. There sat a man who for forty years had basked in fortune's tranquil sunshine. He held the hand of his last hope, his beloved daughter, who had just attained womanhood, and he gazed on her with anxious eyes, she tried to rally her fainting spirit to comfort him. Here a servant, faithful to the last,

Starting point is 16:08:41 though dying, waited on one, who, though still erect with health, gazed with gasping fear on the variety of woe round. Adrian stood leaning against a tree. He held a book in his hand, but his eye wandered from the pages and sought mine. They mingled a sympathetic glance. His looks confessed that his thoughts had quitted the inanimate print, for pages more pregnant with meaning, more absorbing, spread out before him. By the margin of the stream, apart from all, in a tranquil nook, where the pearling brook kissed the green sward gently, Clara and Evelyn were at play, sometimes beating the water with large bows, sometimes watching the summer flies that sported upon it. Evelyn now chased a butterfly, now gathered a flower for his cousin, and his laughing cherub

Starting point is 16:09:28 face and clear brow told of the light heart that beat in his bosom. Clara, though she endeavored to give herself up to his amusement, often forgot him as she turned to observe Adrian and me. She was now fourteen, and retained her childish appearance, though in height a woman, she acted the part of the tenderest mother to my little orphan boy. To see her playing with him or attending silently and submissively on her wants, you thought only of her admirable docility and patience, but in her soft eyes and the vain curtains that veiled them, in the clearness of her marmorial brow, and the tender expression of her lips, there was an intelligence and beauty

Starting point is 16:10:06 that at once excited admiration and love. When the sun had sunk towards the precipitate west, and the evening shadows grew long, we prepared to ascend the mountain. The attention that we were obliged to pay to the sick made our progress slow. The winding road, though steep, presented a confined view of rocky fields and hills,

Starting point is 16:10:26 each hiding the other, till our farther ascent to disclose them in succession. We were seldom shaded from the declining, sun, whose slant beams were instinct with exhausting heat. There are times when minor difficulties grow gigantic, when as the Hebrew poet expressively terms it, the grasshopper is a burthen. So was it with her ale-fated party this evening. Adrian, usually the first to rally his spirits, and dashed foremost into fatigue and hardship, with a relaxed limbs and

Starting point is 16:10:55 declined head. The reins hanging loosely in his grasp left the choice of the path to the instinct of his horse, now and then painfully rousing himself, when the steepness of the ascent required that he should keep his seat with better care. Fear and horror encompassed me. Did his languid air attest that he also was struck with contagion? How long when I look on his matchless specimen of mortality? May I perceive that his thought answers mine? How long will those limbs obey the kindly spirit within? How long will light and life dwell in the eyes? of this my sole remaining friend. Thus pacing slowly, each hill surmounted only presented another to be ascended. Each jutting corner only discovered another, sister to the last, endlessly.

Starting point is 16:11:44 Sometimes the pressure of sickness in one among us caused the whole avalcade to halt, the call for water, the eagerly expressed wish to repose, the cry of pain, and suppressed sob of the mourner, such were the sorrowful attendance of our passage of the juror. Adrian had gone first. I saw him while I was attained by the loosening of a girth, struggling with the upward path seemingly more difficult than any we had yet passed. He reached the top, and the dark outline of his figure stood in relief against the sky. He seemed to behold something unexpected and wonderful, for, pausing, his head stretched out, his arms for a moment extended, he seemed to give an all-hale to some new vision. Urged by curiosity I heard to join him, after battling for many tedious

Starting point is 16:12:31 minutes with the precipice, the same scene presented itself to me, which had wrapped him in ecstatic wonder. Nature, or nature's favorite, the lovely earth, presented her most unrivaled beauties in resplendent and sudden exhibition. Below, far, far below, even as it were in the yawning abyss of the ponderous globe, they the placid and azure expanse of Lake Lamont, vine-covered hills hedged it in, and behind dark mountains in cone-like shape, are irregular cyclopean wall. surfed for further defense, but beyond and high above all, as if the spirits of the air had suddenly unveiled their bright abodes, placed in scaleless altitude in the stainless sky, heaven-kissing, companions of the unattainable ether, were the glorious Alps, clothed in dazzling robes of light

Starting point is 16:13:19 by the setting sun. And as if the world's wonders were never to be exhausted, their vast immensities, their jagged crags and rosy at painting, appeared again in the lake below, dipping their proud heights beneath the unruffled waves, palaces for the naiads of the placid waters. Towns and villages lay scattered at the foot of Jura, which, with dark ravine and black promontories, stretched its roots into the watery expanse beneath. Carried away by wonder I forgot the death of man and the living and beloved friend near me. When I turned, I saw tears streaming from his eyes. His thin hands pressed one against the other, his animated countenance beaming with admiration.

Starting point is 16:14:02 Why, cried he at last, why, O heart, whisperest thou of grief to me? Drink in the beauty of that scene, and possess delight beyond what a fabled paradise could afford. By degrees our whole party surmounting the steep, joined us, not one among them, but gave visible tokens of admiration, surpassing any before experienced.

Starting point is 16:14:23 One cried, God reveals His heaven to us, we may die blessed. Another in another, with broken exclamations and extravagant phrases, endeavored to express the intoxicating effect of this wonder of nature. So we remained a while, lightened of the pressing burthen of fate, forgetful of death, into whose night we were about to plunge, no longer reflecting that our eyes now and forever were and would be the only ones which might perceive the divine magnificence of this terrestrial exhibition. An enthusiastic transport akin to happiness burst like a sudden ray from the sun on our darkened life. Precious attribute of war-worn humanity that can snatch ecstatic emotion even from

Starting point is 16:15:03 under the very Sharon Harrow that ruthlessly plows up and lays waste every hope. This evening was marked by another event. Passing through Fernay norway to Geneva, unaccustomed sounds of music rose from the rural church which stood embosomed in trees surrounded by smokeless vacant cottages. The peal of an organ with rich swell awoke the mute air, lingering along and mingling with the intense beauty that clothed the rocks and woods and waves around. Music, the language of the immortals, disclosed to us as testimony of their existence. Music, silver key of the fountain of tears, child of love, soother of grief, inspirer of heroism and radiant thoughts,

Starting point is 16:15:47 O music, in this our desolation we had forgotten thee. Nor Pipe at Eve cheered us, nor harmony of voice, nor linked thrill of string, thou camest upon us now, like the revealing of other forms of being, and transported as we had been by the loveliness of nature, fancying that we beheld the abode of spirits, now we might well imagine that we heard their melodious communion. We paused in such awe as would seize on a pale votarist, visiting some holy shrine at midnight.

Starting point is 16:16:18 If she beheld animated and smiling, the image which she worshipped, we all stood mute, many knelt. In a few minutes, however, we were recalled to human wonder and sympathy by a familiar strain. The air was Hayden's new-created world, and old and drooping as humanity had become, the world yet fresh as at creation's day might still be word. celebrated by such an hymn of praise. Adrian and I entered the church. The nave was empty, though the smoke of incense rose from the altar, bringing with it the recollection of vast congregations.

Starting point is 16:16:55 In one's thronged cathedrals, we went into the loft. A blind old man sat at the bellows, his whole soul was ear, and as he sat in the attitude of attentive listening, a bright glow of pleasure was diffused over his countenance. for though his lackluster eye could not reflect the beam, yet his parted lips in every line of his face and venerable brow spoke delight. A young woman sat at the keys, perhaps twenty years of age. Her auburn hair hung on her neck, and her fair brow shone in its own beauty.

Starting point is 16:17:28 But her drooping eyes let fall fast-flowing tears, while the constraint she exercised to suppress her sobs, and still her trembling flushed her Alice-pill cheek. She was thin, Langer and alas, sickness bent her form. We stood looking at the pair, forgetting what we heard in the absorbing sight, till the last chord struck the peel died away

Starting point is 16:17:50 in lessening reverberations. The mighty voice, inorganic we might call it, for we could in no way associated with mechanism of pipe or key, stilled its sonorous tone, and the girl, turning to lend her assistance to her age companion at length perceived us. It was her father,

Starting point is 16:18:08 she since childhood had been the guide of his darkened steps. They were Germans from Saxony and emigrating thither, but a few years before had formed new ties with the surrounding villagers. About the time that the pestilence had broken out, a young German student had joined them. Their simple history was easily divined. He, a noble, loved the fair daughter of the poor musician, and followed them in their flight from the persecutions of his friends. But soon the mighty leveler came with unblunted scythe to mow, together with the grass, the tall flowers of the field. The youth was an early victim. She preserved herself for her father's sake. His blindness permitted her to continue a delusion, at first the child of accident, and now solitary being sole survivors in the

Starting point is 16:18:54 land. He remained unacquainted with the change, nor was aware that when he listened to his child's music, the mute mountains, senseless lake, and unconscious trees were himself accepted. her soul auditors. The very day that we arrived she had been attacked by symptomatic illness. She was paralyzed with horror at the idea of leaving her age sightless father alone on the empty earth. But she had not courage to disclose the truth, and the very excess of her desperation animated her to surpassing exertions. At the accustomed vespher hour, she led him to the chapel, and, though trembling and weeping on his account, she played without fault in time or error in note, the hymn written to celebrate the creation of the adorned earth, soon to be her tomb.

Starting point is 16:19:42 We came to her like visitors from heaven itself. Her high-wrought courage, her hardly stained firmness, fled with the appearance of relief. With a shriek she rushed towards us, embraced the knees of Adrian and uttering but the words, Oh, save my father, with sobs and historical, prize opened the long-shut-floodgates of her woe. Poor girl, she and her father now lie side by side beneath the high walnut tree where her lover reposes, in which in her dying moments she had pointed out to us. Her father, at length aware of his daughter's danger, unable to see the changes of her dear countenance, obstinately held her hand till it was chilled and stiffened by death.

Starting point is 16:20:23 Nor did he then move or speak till twelve hours after, kindly death took him to his breakless repose. They rest beneath the sod. the tree their monument. Hallowed spot is distinct in my memory, paled in by craggy Jura and the far immeasurable Alps. The spire of the church they frequented still points from out the emboosoming trees, and though her hand be cold, still methinks the sounds of divine music which they loved wonder about, solacing their gentle ghosts. End of Chapter 7. Volume 3, Chapter 8 of The Last Man. This is a Librevox recording. All Libervox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 16:21:17 For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libervox.org. Recording by Stephanie DuPaul de Martin. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 3, Chapter 8. We had now reached Switzerland so long the final mark and aim of our exertions. We had looked, I know not wherefore, with hope and pleasing expectation, on her congregation of hills and snowy crags, and opened our bosoms with renewed spirits to the icy biz, which even at midsummer used to come from the northern glacier laden with cold.

Starting point is 16:21:53 Yet how could we nourish expectation of relief? Like her native England and the vast extent of fertile France, this mountain-embowed land was desolate of its inhabitants. Nor bleak mountain-top, nor snow norished rivulet, not the ice-laden bids nor thunder the tamer of contagion had preserved them. Why, therefore, should we call it? claim exemption? Who was there indeed to save? What troop had we brought fit to stand at bay in combat with the conqueror? We were a failing remnant, tamed to mere submission to the coming

Starting point is 16:22:26 blow, a train half-dead, through fear of death a hopeless, unresisting, almost reckless crew, which, in the tossed bark of life, had given up all pilotage, and resigned themselves to the destructive force of ungoverned winds. Like a few firs of unreasoned, reaped corn, which, left standing on a wide field after the rest is gathered to the garner, are swiftly borne down by the winter storm, like a few straggling swallows, which remaining after their fellows had on the first unkind breath of passing autumn, migrated to genial climes, were struck to earth by the first frost of November. Like a stray sheep that wanders over the sleet-beaten hillside, while the flock is in the pen and dies before morning dawn, like a cloud, like

Starting point is 16:23:13 one of many that were spread an impenetrable woof over the sky, which, when the shepherd north has driven its companions to drink antipodian noon, fades and dissolves in the clear ether, such were we. We left the fair margin of the beauteous lake of Geneva and entered the alpine ravines, tracing to its source the brawling arve through the rock-bound valley of Cervox, besides the mighty waterfalls and under the shadow of the inaccessible mountains we travelled on, while the luxuriant walnut tree gave place to the dark pine, whose musical branches swung in the wind, in whose upright forms had braved a thousand storms, till the verdun sod, the flowery dell, and shrubbery hill were exchange for the sky piercing, untrodden,

Starting point is 16:24:00 seedless rock, the bones of the world waiting to be clothed with everything necessary to give life and beauty. Strange that we should seek shelter here, surely if, in those countries where earth was wont, like a tender mother, to nourish her children. We had found her a destroyer. We need not seek it here, where stricken by keen pinnury she seemed to shudder through her stony veins. Nor were we mistaken in our conjecture. We vainly sought the vast and ever-moving glaciers of shemone, rifts of pendant ice, seas of condulated waters, the leafless groves of tempest, battered pines, dells, mere paths for the loud avalanche, and hilltops, the resort of thunderstorms. Pestilence reigned paramount even here. By the time that day and night,

Starting point is 16:24:49 like twin sisters of equal growth, shared equally their dominion over the hours, one by one, beneath the ice caves, beside the waters spring from the thawed snows of a thousand winters, another and yet another of the remnant of the race of man, closed their eyes forever to the light. Yet we were not quite wrong in seeking a scene like this, whereon to close the drama. Nature, true to the last, consoled us in the very heart of misery. Sublime grandeur of outward objects soothed our hapless hearts, and were in harmony with our desolation. Many sorrows have befallen man during his checkered course, and many a wo-stricken mourner had found himself sole survivor among many. Our misery took its majestic shape and coloring from

Starting point is 16:25:36 the vast ruin that accompanied and made one with it. Thus on lovely earth, many a dark ravine contains a brawling stream, shadowed by romantic rocks, threaded by mossy paths. But all except this wanted the mighty background, the towering Alps, whose snowy capes or bared ridges lifted us from our dull mortal abode to the palaces of nature's own. The solemn harmony of event and situation regulated our feelings and gave, as it were, fitting costume to the last act. Majestic gloom and tragic pomp attended the decease of wretched humanity. The funeral procession of monarchs of old was transcended by our splendid shoes.

Starting point is 16:26:18 Near the sources of the Arveron we performed the rites for, four only accepted, the last of the species. Adrian and I, leaving Clara and Evelyn wrapped in peaceful, unobserving slumber, carried the body to this desolate spot and placed it in those caves of ice beneath the glacier, which rivens split with the slightest sound, and bring destruction on those within the clefts. No bird or beast of prey could hear profane the frozen form. So with hushed steps, and in silence we placed the dead on a beer of ice, and then departing stood on the rocky platform beside the river springs. All hushed as we had been, the very striking of the air with our

Starting point is 16:27:01 persons had sufficed to disturb the repose of this thalless region. and we had hardly left the cavern before vast blocks of ice, detaching themselves from the roof, fell and covered the human image we had deposited within. We had chosen a fair moonlight night, but our journey thither had been long, and the crescent sank behind the western heights by the time we had accomplished our purpose.

Starting point is 16:27:25 The snowy mountains and blue glaciers shone in their own light, the rugged and abrupt ravine, which formed one side of Mont-en-Vare, was opposite to us, the glacier at our side. at our feet arveron white and foaming dashed over the pointed rocks that jutted into it and with whirring spray and ceaseless roar disturbed the stilly night yellow lightnings played around the vast dome of montblanc silent as the snow-clad rock they illuminated all was bare wild and sublime while the singing of the pines and melodious murmurings added a gentle interest to the rough magnificence now the riving and fall of icy rocks clave the air now the thunder of the fain and the thunder of the pines and the murmurings added a gentle interest to the rough magnificence now the riving and fall of icy rocks clave the air now the thunder of the thunder of the thunder of the avalanche burst on her ears. In countries whose features are of less magnitude, nature betrays her living powers in the foliage of the trees, in the growth of herbage, in the soft purling of meandering

Starting point is 16:28:18 streams. Here, endowed with giant attributes, the torrent, the thunderstorm, and the flow of massive waters, display her activity. Such the churchyard, such the requiem, such the eternal congregation, that waited on her companion's funeral. Nor was it the huge, the huge, human form alone which we had placed in this eternal sepulchre, whose obsequies we now celebrated. With this last victim, plague vanished from the earth. Death had never wanted weapons were with to destroy life, and we, few and weak as we had become, were still exposed to every other shaft with which his full quiver teemed. But pestilence was absent from among them. For seven years, it had had had full sway upon earth. She had trod every nook of her spacious globe. She had mingled

Starting point is 16:29:05 with the atmosphere, which, as a cloak and wraps all our fellow creatures, the inhabitants of Native Europe, the luxurious Asiatic, the swarthy African, and free American had been vanquished and destroyed by her. Her barbarous tyranny came to its close here in the rocky vale of Chamonis. Still recurring scenes of misery and pain, the fruits of this distemper made no more a part of her lives. The word plague no longer rung in her ears. The aspect of plague incarnate in the human countenance. no longer appeared before our eyes. From this moment I saw plague no more. She abdicated her throne

Starting point is 16:29:42 and despoiled herself of her imperial sceptre among the ice rocks that surrounded us. She left solitude and silence cohears of her kingdom. My present feelings are so mingled with the past that I cannot say whether the knowledge of this change visited us as we stood on this sterile spot. It seemed to me that it did, that a cloud seemed to pass from over us,

Starting point is 16:30:03 that a weight was taken from the air, that henceforth we breathed more freely, and raised our heads with some portion of former liberty. Yet we did not hope. We were impressed by the sentiment that our race was run, but that plague would not be our destroyer. The coming time was as a mighty river, down which a charmed boat is driven, whose mortal steersman knows that the obvious peril is not the one he needs fear, yet that danger is nigh, and who floats awestruck under beetling precipices through the dark and turbid waters, seeing in the distance yet stranger and ruder shapes, towards which he is irresistibly impelled. What would become of us? Oh, for some Delphic or oracle or Pythian maid to utter the secrets of futurity, or for some Oedipus to solve the riddle

Starting point is 16:30:54 of the cruel sphinx? Such Oedipus was I to be, not divining words to struggle, but whose agonizing pangs and sorrow-tainted life were to be the engines wherewith to lay bare the secrets of destiny, and reveal the meaning of the enigma, whose explanation closed the history of the human race. Dim fancies akin to these haunted our minds and instilled feelings not unallied to pleasure, as we stood beside the silent tomb of nature reared by these lifeless mountains above her living veins choking her vital principle. Thus we are left, said E.

Starting point is 16:31:29 Adrian, two melancholy blasted trees, where once a forest waved. We are left to mourn and pine and die. Yet even now we have our duties, which we must string ourselves to fulfill, the duty of bestowing pleasure where we can, and by force of love irradiating with rainbow hues, the tempest of grief. Nor will I repine, if, in this extremity, we preserve what we now possess. Something tells me, Verne, that we need no longer dread our cruel enemy, and I cling with delight to the oracular voice. though strange it will be sweet to mark the growth of your little boy and the development of Clara's young heart. In the midst of a desert world we are everything to them, and if we live it must be our task to make this new mode of life happy to them. At present this is easy for their childish

Starting point is 16:32:17 ideas do not wander into futurity, and the stinging craving for sympathy in all of love of which our nature is susceptible is not yet awake within them. We cannot guess what will happen then when nature asserts her indefeasible and sacred powers. But long before that time we may all be cold, as he who lies in yonder tomb of ice. We need only provide for the present an endeavor to fill with pleasant images the inexperienced fancy of your lovely niece. The scenes which now surround us, vast and sublime as they are, are not such as can best contribute to this work. Nature is here like our fortunes grand, but too destructive, bare and rude, to be able to afford delight, to our young imagination. Let us descend to the sunny plains of Italy. Winter will soon be here

Starting point is 16:33:05 to clothe this wilderness and double desolation, but we will cross the bleak hilltops and lead her to scenes of fertility and beauty, where her path will be adorned with flowers, and the cheery atmosphere inspire pleasure and hope. In pursuance of this plan, we quitted Chamonial on the following day. We had no cause to hasten our steps. No event was transacted beyond our actual sphere to enchain our resolves, so we yielded to every idle whim and deemed our time well spent when we could behold the passage of the hours without dismay. We loitered along the lovely veil of Selvox, past long hours on the bridge, which, crossing the ravine of Arve, commands a prospect of its pine-cloth depths, and the snowy mountains that walled in. We rambled through romantic

Starting point is 16:33:50 Switzerland, till fear of coming winter leading us forward. The first days of October found us in the valley of Lamorien, which leads to Sini. I cannot explain the reluctance we felt at leaving this land of mountains. Perhaps it was that we regarded the Alps as boundaries between our former and our future state of existence, and so clung fondly to what of old we had loved. Perhaps because we had now so few impulses urging to a choice between two modes of action, we were pleased to preserve the existence of one and preferred the prospect of what we were to do, to the recollection of what had been done. We felt that this year danger was passed, and we believed that for some months we were secured to each other. There was a thrilling, agonizing delight in the thought. It filled

Starting point is 16:34:38 the eyes with misty tears, it tore the heart with tumultuous heavings, frailer than the snowfall in the river, were we each and all, but we strove to give life and individuality to the meteoroid course over several existences, and to feel that no moment escaped us unenjoyed. Thus tottering on the dizzy brink, we were happy. Yes, as we sat beneath the toppling rocks beside the waterfalls near forests, ancient as the hills, enfolding sunny spots of greenery, where the chamois grazed and the timid squirrel laid up its hoard, discanting on the charms of nature, drinking in the while her unalienable beauties, we were in an empty world happy. Yet, oh, days of joy, days when I spoke to eye, and voices sweeter than the music of the swinging branches of the swinging branches of the, the pines or rivulets gentle murmur answered mine yet oh days replete with beatitude days of love society days unutterably dear to me forlorn pass oh pass before me making me in your memory forget what i am behold how my streaming eyes blot the senseless paper behold how my features are convulsed by agonizing throes at your mere recollection now that alone my tears flow my lips quiver my cries fill the air unseen unmarked unheard. Yet, oh yet, days of delight, let me dwell on your long-drawn hours.

Starting point is 16:36:03 As the cold increased upon us, we passed the Alps and descended into Italy. As the uprising of morn, we sat at our repast and cheated our regrets by gay sallies or learned disquisitions. The live-long day we sauntered on, still keeping in view the end of her journey, but careless of the hour of its completion. As the evening stars shone out and the orange sunset far in the marked the position of the dear land we had forever left, talk, thought and chaining, made the hours fly. O that we had lived thus forever and forever! Of what consequence was it to our four hearts, that they alone were the fountains of life in the wide world? As far as mere individual sentiment was concerned, we had rather be left thus united together than if, each alone in a populous desert

Starting point is 16:36:51 of unknown men, we had wandered truly companionless to life's last term. in this manner we endeavoured to console each other in this manner true philosophy taught us to reason it was the delight of adrian and myself to wait on clara naming her the little queen of the world ourselves her humblest servitors when we arrived at a town our first care was to select for her its most choice abode to make sure that no harrowing relic remained of its former inhabitants to seek food for her and minister to her wants with assiduous tenderness clara entered into her scheme with childish gaiety her chief business was to attend on evelyn but it was her sport to array herself in splendid robes adorn herself with sunny gems an ape of princely state her religion deep and pure did not teach her to refuse to blunt thus the keen sting of regret Her youthful vivacity made her enter, hardened soul into these strange masquerades. We had resolved to pass the ensuing winter at Milan, which, as being, a large and luxurious city,

Starting point is 16:37:55 would afford us choice of homes. We had descended the Alps and left far behind the vast forests and mighty crags. We entered smiling Italy. Mingling grass and corn grew in her plains, the unpruned vines through their luxuriant branches around the elms. The grapes overripe had fallen on the ground, or hung purple or burnished green among the red and yellow leaves.

Starting point is 16:38:18 The ears of standing corn winnowed to emptiness by the spent-thrift winds, the fallen foliage of the trees, the wee-grown brooks, the dusky olive now spotted with its blackened fruit, the chestnuts to which the squirrel only was harvest man, all plenty, and yet alas all poverty, painted in wondrous hues and fantastic groupings this land of beauty. In the towns, in the voiceless towns, the churches, adorned by pictures, masterpieces of art, or galleries of statues,

Starting point is 16:38:50 on this genial climb the animals in newfound liberty, rambled through the gorgeous palaces and hardly feared our forgotten aspect. The dove-colored oxen turned their full eyes on us, and paced slowly by, a startling throng of silly sheep, with pattering feet would start up in some chamber, formerly dedicated to the repose of beauty, and rush huddling past us down the marble staircase into the street, and again in at the first open door, taking unrebuked possession of a hollowed sanctuary, or kingly council chamber. We no longer started at these occurrences, nor at worse exhibition of change, when the palace had become a mere tomb pregnant with fetid stench, strewn with the dead, and we could perceive how pestilence and fear had played strange antics,

Starting point is 16:39:38 chasing the luxurious dame to the dank fields and bare cottage, gathering among carpets of Indian woof and beds of silk, the rous peasant, or the deformed half-human shape of the wretched beggar. We arrived at Milan and stationed ourselves at the Vissroyce Palace. Here we made laws for ourselves, dividing our day and fixing distinct occupations for each hour. In the morning we rode in the adjoining country or wandered through the palaces in search of pictures or antiquities. In the evenings we assembled to read or to converse. There are few books that we dared read, few that did not cruelly deface the painting we bestowed on our solitude, by recalling combinations and emotions never more to be experienced by us. Metaphysical disquisition, fiction which wandering from all

Starting point is 16:40:26 reality lost itself in self-created errors. Poets of times so far gone by that to read of them was as to read of Atlantis and Utopia. Or such as referred to nature only and the workings of one particular mind, but most of all talk varied and ever knew beguiled our hours. While we paused thus in our onward career towards death, time held on its accustomed course. Still and forever did the earth roll on, enthroned in her atmospheric car, speeded by the force of the invisible coursers of never-erring necessity. And now this dew-drop in the sky, this ball, ponderous with mountains, loosened with waves, passing from the short tyranny of watery pice, and the frigid ram entered the radiant damazine of taurus and the twins there fanned by vernal airs the spirit of beauty sprung from her cold repose and with winnowing wings and soft pacing feet set a girdle of verdure around the earth sporting among the violets hiding within the springing foliage of the trees tripping lightly down the radiant streams into the sunny deep for lo winter is past the rain is over and gone the flowers appear on the earth the time of the singing of birds

Starting point is 16:41:39 has come and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land the fig tree puteth forth her green figs and the vines with their tender grape give a good smell thus was it in the time of the ancient regal poet thus was it now yet how could we miserable hail the approach of this delightful season we hoped indeed that death did not now as heretofore walk in its shadow yet left as we were alone to each other we looked into each other's faces with inquiring eyes not daring altogether to trust to her presentments, and endeavoring to divine which would be the hapless survivor to the other three. We were to pass the summer at the Lake of Como, and thither we removed as soon a spring grew to her maturity, and the snow disappeared from the hilltops. Telmas from Como under the steep heights of the eastern mountains by the margin of the lake was a villa called Piniana, from its being built on the side of a fountain whose periodical ebb and flow is described by the younger Pliny in his letters. The house had nearly fallen into ruin, till in the year 2090, an English nobleman

Starting point is 16:42:44 had bought it and fitted up with every luxury. Two large halls hung with splendid tapestry and paved with marble opened on each side of a court, of whose two other sides one overlooked the deep dark lake, and the other was bounded by a mountain, from whose stony side got with roar and splash the celebrated fountain, above underwood of myrtle and tufts of odorous plants crowned the rock, while the star-pointing giant cypresses reared themselves in the blue air, and the recesses of the hills were adorned with the luxuriant growth chestnut trees. Here we fixed our summer residence. We had a lovely skiff, in which we sailed,

Starting point is 16:43:22 now stemming the midmost waves, now coasting the overhanging craggy banks, thick stone with evergreens, which dipped their shining leaf in the waters, and were mirrored in many a little bay and creek of water, waters of translucent darkness. Here orange plants bloomed, here birds poured forth melodious hymns, and here during spring the cold snake emerged from the clefts, and basked on the sunny terraces of rock. Were we not happy in this paradisiacal retreat? If some kind spirit had whispered

Starting point is 16:43:52 forgetfulness to us, methinks we should have been happy here, where the precipitous mountains, nearly pathless, shut from our view the far fields of desolate earth, and with small exertion of the imagination we might fancy that cities were still resonant with popular hum and the peasant still guided his plough through the furrow, and that we, the world's free denizens, enjoyed a voluntary exile and not a remedialess cutting off from our extinct species. Not one among us enjoyed the beauty of this scenery as much as Clara. Before we quitted Milan, a change had taken place in her habits and manners. She lost her gaiety, she laid aside her sports, and assumed an almost vestal plainness of attire. She shunned us, retiring with Evelyn to some distant chamber or silent nook,

Starting point is 16:44:38 nor did she enter into his pastimes with the same zest as she was wont, but would sit and watch him with sadly ten smiles and eyes bright with tears, yet without a word of complaint. She approached as timidly, avoided our caresses, nor shook off her embarrassment till some serious discussion or lofty theme called her for a while out of herself. Her beauty grew as a rose, which, opening to the summer wind, discloses leaf after leaf,

Starting point is 16:45:04 till the sense aches with its excess of loveliness. A slight and variable color tinged her cheeks, and her motion seemed attuned by some hidden harmony of surpassing sweetness. We redoubled her tenderness and earnest attentions. She received them with grateful smiles that fled swift as sunny beam from a glittering wave on an April day. Our only acknowledged point of sympathy with her appear to be Evelyn. This dear little fellow was a comforter and delight to us beyond all words, his buoyant spirit, and his innocent ignorance of our vast calamity were balm to us, whose thoughts and feelings were overwrought and spun out in the immensity of speculative sorrow. To cherish, to caress, to amuse him,

Starting point is 16:45:47 was the common task of all. Clara, who fell towards him in some degree like a young mother, gratefully acknowledged our kindness towards him. To me, oh, to me, who saw the clearer brows and soft eyes of the beloved of my heart, my lost and ever dear Idris, reborn his gentle face, to me he was dear ever to pain. If I pressed him to my heart, me thought I clasped a real and living part of her, who had lain there through long years of youthful happiness. It was the custom of Adrian and myself to go out each day in our skiff to forge in the adjacent country. In these expeditions we were seldom accompanied by Clara or her little charge, but our return was an hour of hilarity. Evelyn ransacked her store with childish eagerness, and we

Starting point is 16:46:34 always brought some newfound gift for our fair companion. Then too we made discoveries of lovely scenes or gay palaces, whether in the evening we all proceeded. Our sailing expeditions were most divine, and with a fair wind or transverse course we cut the liquid waves. And if talk failed, under the pressure of thought, I had my clarionette with me, which awoke the echoes and gave the change to our careful minds. Clara at such times often returned to her former habits of free converse and gay sally, and though our four hearts alone beaten the world, those four hearts were happy. One day on our return from the town of Como, with a laden boat we expected as usual to be met at the port by Clara and Evelyn, and we were somewhat surprised to see the beach vacant.

Starting point is 16:47:21 I, as my nature prompted, would not prognosticate evil, but explained it away as a mere casual incident. Not so, Adrian. He was seized with sudden trembling and apprehension, and he called to me with vehemence to steer quickly for land, and when near leapt from the boat half falling into the water, and scrambling up to the steep bank, hastened along the narrow strip of garden, the only level space between the lake and the mountain. I followed without delay. The garden and inner court were empty, so was the house, whose every room we visited. Adrian called loudly upon Clara's name, and was about to rush up the near mountain path, when the door of a summer house at the end of the

Starting point is 16:48:02 garden slowly opened, and Clara appeared not advancing towards us, but leaning against a column of the building with blanched cheeks, and a posture of utter despondency. Adrian sprang towards her with a cry of joy and folded her delighted Lena's arms. She withdrew from his embrace, and without a word, again entered the summer house. Her quivering lips, her despairing heart, refused to afford her voice to express her misfortune. Poor little Evelyn had, while playing with her, been seized with sudden fever and now lay torpid and speechless on a little couch in the summer house. For a whole fortnight we unceasingly watched beside the poor child as his life declined under the ravages of a virulent typhus. His little form and tiny liniments encaged

Starting point is 16:48:49 the embryo of the world's spanning mind of man. Man's nature, brimful of passions and affections, would have had in home in that little heart whose swift pulsations hurried towards their clothes. his small hands fine mechanism now flaxid and um bent would in the growth of sinew and muscle have achieved works of beauty or of strength his tender rosy feet would have trod in firm manhood the bowers and glades of earth these reflections were now of little use he lay thought and strength suspended waiting and resisting the final blow we watched at his bedside and when the axis of fever was on him we neither spoke nor looked at each other marking only his obstructive breath and the mortal glow that tinged is sunken cheek, the heavy death that weighed on his eyelids. It is a trite evasion to say that words could not express her long-drawn agony. Yet how can words image sensations whose tormenting keenness throw us back, as it were, on the deep roots and hidden foundations of our nature, which shake our being with earthquake throw, so that we leave to confined in accustomed feelings which, like Mother Earth, support us, and cling to some vain imagination

Starting point is 16:49:59 or deceitful hope, which will soon be buried in the ruins occasioned by the final shock. I have called that period of fortnight, which we pass watching the changes of the sweet child's malady, and such it might have been. At night we wondered to find another day gone, while each particular hour seemed endless, day and night were exchanged for one other uncounted. We slept hardly at all, nor did we even quit his room except when a pang of grief seized us, and we were tired from each other for a short period to conceal our sobs in tears. We endeavored in vain to abstract Clara from this deplorable scene. She sat, hour after hour, looking at him, now softly arranging his pillow, and, while he had power to swallow, administered his drink.

Starting point is 16:50:47 At length the moment of his death came, the blood paused in its flow, his eyes opened, and then closed again, without convulsion or sigh, the frail tenement, was left vacant of its spiritual inhabitant. I have heard the sight of the dead who has confirmed materialists in the relief. I ever felt otherwise. Was that my child, that moveless, decaying animation? My child was enraptured by my caresses. His dear voice clothed with meaning articulations his thoughts,

Starting point is 16:51:20 otherwise inaccessible. His smile was a ray of the soul, and the same soul sat upon its throne in his eyes. I turn from this mockery of what he was. Take, O earth, thy debt, freely and forever I consign to thee the garb thou didst afford, but thou, sweet child, amiable and beloved boy, either thy spirit hast sought a fitter dwelling, or ashrined in my heart, thou livest while it lives.

Starting point is 16:51:47 Replaced his remains under a cypress, the upright mountain being scooped out to receive them. And then Clara said, if you wish me to live, take me from hence. There is something in this scene of transcendent beauty, in these trees and hills and waves that forever whisper to me, leave thy cumbrous flesh and make a part of us. I earnestly entreat you to take me away. So on the 15th of August we bade adieu to our villa and the embowering shades of this abode of beauty, to calm bay and noisy waterfall, to Evelyn's little grave we bade for well, and then with heavy hearts we departed

Starting point is 16:52:24 on our pilgrimage towards Rome. End of chapter 8. Volume 3, Chapter 9 of The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Stephanie DuPaul de Martin.

Starting point is 16:52:59 The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 3, Chapter 9. Now, soft a wide. have I arrived so near the end? Yes, it is all over now. A step or two over those new-made graves, and the wearisome way is done. Can I accomplish my task? Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion? Quit thy Cimmerian solitude, bring with thee murky fogs from hell, which may drink up the day, bring blight and pestiferous exhalations, which, entering the hollow caverns and breathing places of earth, may fill her stony veins with corruption.

Starting point is 16:53:37 so that not only herbage may no longer flourish, the trees may rot, and the rivers run with gall. But the everlasting mountains be decomposed, and the mighty deep putify, and the genial atmosphere which clips and globe lose all powers of generation and sustenance. Do this sad visage power, while I write while eyes read these pages. And who will read them? Beware tender offspring of the reborn world. Beware for a being with human heart. yet untamed by care and human brow, yet unplowed by time, beware, lest the cheerful current of thy blood be checked, thy golden locks turn grey, thy sweet dimpling smiles be changed to fixed, harsh wrinkles. Let not day look on these lines, lest garish day waste, turn pale, and die.

Starting point is 16:54:28 Seek a cypress grove, whose moaning bows will be harmony befitting, seek some cave deep embowered in earth's darken trails, where no light will penetrate, save that witch struggles, red and flickering, through a single fissure staining, thy page with grimaced livery of death. There is a painful confusion in my brain, which refuses to delineate distinctly succeeding events. Sometimes the irradiation of my friend's gentle smile comes before me, and methinks its light spans and fills eternity. Then, again, I feel the gasping throws.

Starting point is 16:55:03 We quitted Como, and in compliance with Adrian's earnest desire, we took Venice in our way to Rome. There was something to the English peculiarly attractive in the idea of this wave-encircled island-thrown city. We went down the poe and the brenta in a boat, and the days proving intolerably hot we rested in the bordering palaces during the day, travelling through the night when darkness made the bordering banks indistinct, and our solitude less remarkable, when the wandering moon lit the waves that divided before our prow, and the night wind filled ourselves, and the murmuring stream, waving trees, and swelling canvas, accorded in harmonious strain. Clara, long overcome by excessive grief, had to a great degree cast aside her

Starting point is 16:55:47 timid, cold reserve, and received our attentions with grateful tenderness. While Adrian, with poetic fervour discoursed of the glorious nations of the dead, of the beauteous earth and the fate of man, she crept near him, drinking in his speech with silent pleasure. We banished from our talk, and as much as possible from our thoughts, the knowledge of our desolation. And it would be incredible to an inhabitant of cities, to one among a busy throng, to what extent we succeeded. It was, as a man can find in a dungeon,

Starting point is 16:56:17 whose small ingrated rift at first renders the doubtful light more sensibly obscure, till the visual orb, having drunken in the beam, and adapted itself to in scantiness, he finds that clear noon inhabits a cell. So we, a simple triad on empty earth, were multiplied to each other, till we became all in all.

Starting point is 16:56:36 We stood like trees whose roots are loosened by the wind which support one another, leaning and clinging with increased fervor while the wintry storms howl. Thus we floated down the widening stream of the Poe, sleeping when the sacral sang, awake with the stars. We entered the narrow banks of the Brenta

Starting point is 16:56:53 and arrived at the shore of the laguna at sunrise on the 6th September. The bright orb slowly rose from behind its cupolas and towers and shed its penetrating light upon the glassy waters. Rects of gondolas, and some few unenjured ones, were strewn on the beach at Fuzina. We embarked in one of these for the widow daughter of Ocean, who abandoned fallen, sat forlorn on her propping aisles, looking towards the farer mountains of Greece. We rode lightly over the laguna and entered Calane Grande. The tide ebbed suddenly from

Starting point is 16:57:27 out the broken portals and violated halls of Venice. Seaweed and sea-monster. were left on the blackened marble, while the salt oozed defaced the matchless works of art that adorned the walls, and the seagull flew out from the shattered window. In the midst of this appalling ruin of the monuments of man's power, nature asserted her ascendancy and shone more beauteous from the contrast. The radiant waters hardly trembled while the rippling waves made many-sided mirrors to the sun, the blue immensity, seen beyond Lido, stretched far, unspecked by boat, so tranquil, so lovely, seemed to invite us to quit the land strewn with ruins, and to seek refuge from sorrow and fear on its placid extent. We saw the ruins of the Sapless city from the height of the Tower of San

Starting point is 16:58:14 Marco, immediately under us and turned with sickening hearts to the sea, which, though it be a grave, rears no monument, discloses no ruin. Evening had come apace. The sun set and called majesty behind the misty summits of the Apennines, and its golden and rosy at hues, painted the mountains of the opposite shore. That land, said Adrian, tinned with the last glories of the day, is Greece. Greece, the sound had a responsive chord in the bosom of Clara. She vehemently reminded us that we had promised to take her once again to Greece, to the tomb of her parents.

Starting point is 16:58:50 Why go to Rome? What should we do at Rome? We might take one of the many vessels to be found here, embark in it, and steer right for Albania. I objected the dangers of ocean, and the distance of the mountains we saw from Athens, a distance which from the savage uncultivation of the country was almost impassable. Adrian, who was delighted with Clara's proposal, obviated these objections. The season was favorable, the northwest that blew, would take us transversely across the Gulf, and then we might find, in some abandoned port, a light Greek hike, adapted for such

Starting point is 16:59:23 navigation and run down the coast of the Moria, and passing over the isthmus of Corinth, without much land traveling or fatigue, find ourselves at Athens. This appeared to me wild talk, but the sea glowing with a thousand purple hues looked so brilliant and safe my beloved companions were so earnest, so determined, that, when Adrian said, Well, though it is not exactly what you wish, yet consent, to please me, I could no longer refuse. That evening we selected a vessel whose size just seemed fitted for our enterprise. We bent the sails and put the rigging in order, and reposing that night in one of the city's thousand palaces, agreed to embark at sunrise.

Starting point is 17:00:02 the following morning. When winds that move not its calm surface sweep, the azure sea, I love the land no more. The smiles of the serene and tranquil deep, tempt my unquiet mind. Thus said Edouin, quoting a translation of Moschus' poem, as in the clear morning light we rode over the laguna past Lido into the open sea, I would have added in continuation.

Starting point is 17:00:27 But when the roar of ocean's gray abyss resounds and foam gathers upon the sea, and vast waves burst. But my friends declared that such verses were evil augury, so in cheerful mood we left the shallow waters, and when out at sea, unfurled our sails to catch the favorable breeze. The laughing morning air filled them, while sunlight bathed earth, sky, and ocean. The placid waves divided to receive our keel, and playfully kissed the dark sides of our little skiff, murmuring and welcome. As land receded, still the blue expanse, most waveless, twin sister to the azure and Empyrian afforded smooth conduct to our bark.

Starting point is 17:01:05 As the air and waters were tranquil and balmy, so are our minds steeped and quiet. In comparison with the unstained deep, funeral earth appeared a grave, its high rocks and stately mountains were but monuments, its trees, the plumes of a hearse, the brooks and rivers breakish with tears for departed man. Farewell to desolate towns, to fields with their savage intermixture of corn and weeds, to ever multiplying relics of our lost species. Ocean, we commit ourselves to thee. Even as a patriarch of our old floated above the drowned world,

Starting point is 17:01:39 let us be saved, as thus we betake ourselves to thy perennial flood. Adrian sat at the helm. I attended to the rigging at the breeze right aft filled our swelling canvas, and we ran before it over the in trouble deep. The wind died away at noon, its idle breath just permitted us to hold our course. As lazy, fair weather sailors, careless of the coming hour, we talked gaily of our coasting voyage, of our arrival at Athens. We would make our home of one of the Cyclades, and there in myrtle groves, amidst perpetual spring, fanned by the wholesome sea breezes, we would live long years in beatific

Starting point is 17:02:18 union. Was there such a thing as death in the world? The sun passed its zenith and lingered down the stainless floor of heaven. Lying in the boat, my face turned up to the sky. I thought I saw on its blue-white marbled streaks, so slight, so immaterial, that now I said, they are there, and now it is a mere imagination. A sudden fear stung me while I gazed, and starting up and running to the prow, as I stood my hair was gently lifted on my brow. A dark line of ripples appeared to the east, gaining rapidly on us. My breathless remark to Adrian was followed by the flapping of the canvas, as the adverse wind struck it and our boat lurched, swift as speech the web of the storm thickened overhead the sun went down red the dark sea was strewed with foam and our skiff rose and fell in its increasing furrows behold us now in our frail tenement hemmed in by hungry roaring waves buffeted by winds in the inky east two vast clouds sailing contrary ways met the lightning leapt forth and the hoarse thunder muttered again in the south the clouds replied in the fourth stream of fire running along the black sky

Starting point is 17:03:28 showed us the appalling piles of clouds, now met and obliterated by the heaving waves. Great God, and we alone, we three alone, soul dwellers on the sea and on the earth, we three must perish. The vast universe, its myriad a world, and the plains of boundless earth which we had left, the extent of shoreless sea around contracted to my view, they and all that they contained shrunk up to one point, even to our tossing bark freighted with glorious humanity. A convulsion of despair Across the love-beaming face of Adrian While with set teeth he murmured

Starting point is 17:04:03 Yet they shall be saved Clara visited by a human pain Pale and trembling crept near him He looked on her with an encouraging smile Do you fear, sweet girl? Oh, do not fear, we shall soon be on shore The darkness prevented me from seeing The changes of her countenance

Starting point is 17:04:22 But her voice was clear and sweet As she replied, why should I fear? Neither sea nor storm can harm us. If mighty destiny are the ruler of destiny does not permit. And then the stinging fear of surviving either of you is not here. One death will clasp us undivided. Meanwhile we took in all our cells save a gib, and as soon as we might without danger changed our course, running with the wind for the Italian shore. Dark night mixed everything. We hardly discern the white crests of the murderous surges, except when lightning made brief noon and drank the darkness, showing us our danger and restoring us to double night.

Starting point is 17:05:01 We were all silent, except when Adrian, as Steersman, made an encouraging observation. Our little shell obeyed the rudder miraculously well and ran along on the top of the waves as if she had been an offspring of the sea, and the angry mother sheltered her endangered child. I sat at the prow watching our course, when suddenly I heard the waters break with redoubled fury. We were certainly near the shore. the same time I cried, about there, and a broad lightning filling the concave, showed us for one moment the level beach ahead, disclosing even the sands and stunted oo-sprinkled beds of reeds that grew at high watermark. Again it was dark, and we drew in our breath with such content

Starting point is 17:05:43 as one may, who, while fragments of volcano-hurled rock darkened the air, sees a vast mass plowing the ground immediately at his feet. What to do we knew not. The breakers, here, there, everywhere encompassed us. They roared and dashed and flung their hated spray in our faces. With considerable difficulty and danger, we succeeded at length in altering our course, and stretched out from shore. I urged my companions to prepare for the wreck of our little skiff, and to bind themselves to some oar or spar which might suffice to float them.

Starting point is 17:06:18 I was myself an excellent swimmer. The very sight of the sea was wont to raise in me such sensations, as a huntsman experiences when he hears a pack of hounds in full cry. I love to feel the waves wrap me and strive to overpower me, while I, lord of myself, moved this way or that, in spite of their angry buffetings. Adrian also could swim, but the weakness of his frame prevented him from feeling pleasure in the exercise

Starting point is 17:06:44 or acquiring any great expertness. But what power could the strongest swimmer oppose to the overpowering violence of ocean and its fury? My efforts to prepare my companions were rendered nearly futile, where the roaring breakers prevented our hearing one another speak, and the waves that broke continually over our boat, obliged me to exert all my strength in lading the water out as fast as it came in. The wild darkness, palpable and rayless, hemmed us round,

Starting point is 17:07:13 dissipated only by the lightning. Sometimes we beheld thunderbolts, fiery red, fallen to the sea, and at intervals vast spouts stooped from the clouds, stooped from the clouds, churning the wild ocean which rose to meet them, while the fierce gale bore the rack onwards, and they were lost in the chaotic mingling of sky and sea. Our gunwales had been torn away, our single sail had been rent to ribbons, and borne down the stream of the wind. We had cut away our mast, and lightened the boat of all she contained. Clara attempted to assist me in heaving the water from the hold, and as she turned her eyes to look on the lightning, I could discern by that

Starting point is 17:07:53 momentary gleam, that resignation had conquered every fear. We have a power given us in any worst extremity, which props the else feeble mind of man, and enables us to endure the most savage tortures with the stillness of soul, which in hours of happiness we could not have imagined. A calm, more dreadful in truth than the tempest, allayed the wild beatings of my heart, a calm like that of the gamester, the suicide and the murderer, when the last die is on the point of being cast, while the poison cup is at the lips, as the death blow is about to be given. Hours pass thus, hours which might write old age on the face of beardless youth, and grizzle the silky hair of infancy. Hours, while the chaotic uproar continued, while each dread gust transcended

Starting point is 17:08:41 in fury the one before, and our skiff hung on the breaking wave, and then rushed into the valley below, and trembled and spun between the watery precipices that seemed most to meet. above her. For a moment the gale paused and ocean sank to comparative silence. It was a breathless interval, the wind which, as a practice leaper, had gathered itself up before it sprung, now with terrific roar rushed over the sea, and the waves struck our stern. Adrian exclaimed that the rudder was gone. We are lost, cried Clara. Save yourselves! Save yourselves! The lightning showed me the poor girl half buried in the water at the bottom of the boat, as she was sinking in it, Adrian caught her up and sustained her in his arms. We were without a rudder. We rushed

Starting point is 17:09:28 row foremost into the vast billows piled up ahead. They broke over and filled the tiny skiff. One scream I heard, one cry that we were gone, I uttered. I found myself in the waters. Darkness was around. When the light of the tempest flashed, I saw the keel of her upset boat close to me. I clung to this, grasping it with clenched hand and nails, while I endeavored during each flash to discover any appearance of my companions. I thought I saw Adrian at no great distance from me, clinging to an oar. I sprung from my hold, and with energy beyond my human strength,

Starting point is 17:10:03 I dashed aside the waters as I strove to lay hold of him. As that hope failed, instinctive love of life animated me, and feelings of contention as if a hostile will combated with mine. I breasted the surges and flung them from me, as I would the opposing front and sharpened claws of a lion about to enfang my bosom. When I had been beaten down by one wave, I rose on another while I felt bitter pride curled my lip. Ever since the storm had carried us near the shore, we had never attained any great distance from it. With every flash I saw the bordering coast, yet the progress I made was small,

Starting point is 17:10:39 while each wave as it receded carried me back into oceans far abysses. At one moment I felt my foot touched the sand, and then again I was in deep water. My arms began to lose their power of motion. My breath failed me under the influence of the strangling waters. A thousand wild and delirious thoughts crossed me. As well as I can now recall them, my chief feeling was, how sweet it would be to lay my head on the quiet earth, where the surges would no longer strike my weakened frame,

Starting point is 17:11:07 nor the sound of waters ring in my ears, to attain this repose. Not to save my life, I made a last effort. The shelving shore suddenly presented a footing for me. I rose and was again thrown down by the breakers, A point of rock to which I was enabled to cling gave me a moment's respite, and then taking advantage of the ebbing of the waves, I ran forwards, gained the dry sands and fell senseless on the oozy reeds that sprinkled them. I must have lain long deprived of life, for when first with a sickening feeling I enclosed my eyes, the light of mourning met them. Grey change had taken place meanwhile. Gray dawn dappled the flying clouds which sped onwards, leaving visible at intervals, vast lakes of pure ether. A fountain of light arose in an increasing stream from the east, behind the waves of the

Starting point is 17:11:56 Adriatic, changing the gray to a rosyed hue, and then flooding sky and sea with aerial gold. A kind of stupor followed my fainting. My senses were alive, but memory was extinct. The blessed respite was short. A snake lurked near me to sting meat into life. On the first retrospect emotion I would have started up, but my limbs refused to obey me, My knees trembled, the muscles had lost all power. I still believe that I might find one of my beloved companions cast like me half alive on the beach, and I strove in every way to restore my frame

Starting point is 17:12:32 to the use of its animal functions. I wrung the brine from my hair, and the rays of the risen sun soon visited me with genial warmth. With the restoration of my bodily powers, my mind became in some degree aware of the universe of misery, henceforth to be its dwelling. i ran to the water's edge calling on the beloved names ocean drank in and absorbed my feeble voice replying with pitiless roar i climbed near a tree the level sands bounded by a pine forest and the sea clipped round by the horizon was all that i could discern in vain i extended my researches along the beach the mast we had thrown overboard with tangled cordage and remnants of a sail was a sole relic land received of our wreck

Starting point is 17:13:19 sometimes i stood still and wrung my hands i accused earth and sky the universal machine and the almighty power that misdirected it again i threw myself on the sands and then the sighing wind mimicking a human cry roused me to bitter fallacious hope assuredly if any little bark or smallest canoe had been near i should have sought the savage plains of ocean found the deer remains of my lost ones and clinging round them have shared their grave the day passed thus each moment contained eternity although one hour after hour i'd gone by i wondered at the quick flight of time yet even now i had not drunk the bitter potion to the drugs i was not yet persuaded of my loss i did not yet feel in every pulsation in every nerve in every thought that i remained alone of my rays that i was the last man the day had clouded over and a drizzling rain set in at sunset Even the eternal skies weep, I thought. Is there any shame then that mortal man should spend himself in tears? I remembered the ancient fables in which human beings are described as dissolving away through weeping into ever-gushing fountains.

Starting point is 17:14:31 Ah, that so it were. And then my destiny would be in some sort akin to the watery death of Adrian and Clara. Oh, grief is fantastic, it weaves a web on which to trace the history of its woe from every form and change around. It incorporates itself with all living nature. It finds sustenance in every object. As light it fills all things, and, like light, it gives its own colors to all. I had wandered in my search to some distance from the spot on which I had been cast, and came to one of those watchtowers, which at stated distances lined the Italian shore. I was glad of shelter, glad to find a work of human hands, after I had gazed so long on nature's

Starting point is 17:15:15 drear barrenness. So I entered and ascended the rough winding staircase into the guardroom. So far was fate kind that no harrowing vestige remained of its former inhabitants. A few planks laid across two iron trestles and strewed with the dried leaves of Indian corn was the bed presented to me, and an open chest containing some half-mouldered biscuit, awakened an appetite which perhaps existed before, but of which until now I was not aware. thirst also violent and parching, the result of the seawater I had drank and of the exhaustion of my frame tormented me.

Starting point is 17:15:54 Kind nature had gifted the supply of these wants with pleasurable sensations, so that I, even I, was refreshed and calmed, as I ate of this sorry fare and drank a little of the sour wine which half-filled the flask left in this abandoned dwelling. Then I stretched myself on the bed, not to be disdained by the victim

Starting point is 17:16:14 of shipwreck. The earthy smell of the dried leaves was born to my sense after the hateful odor of seaweed. I forgot my state of loneliness. I neither looked backward no forward. My senses were hushed to repose. I fell asleep and dreamed of all dear inland scenes of haymakers, of the shepherd's whistle to his dog, when he demanded his help to drive the flock to fold, of sights and sounds peculiar to my boyhood's mountain life, which I had long forgotten. I awoke in a painful agony, for I fancied the ocean breaking its bounds carried away the fixed continent and deep-rooted mountains, together with the streams I loved, the woods and the flocks, it raged around with that continued and dreadful roar which had accompanied the last wreck of

Starting point is 17:17:01 surviving humanity. As my waking sense returned, the bare walls of the guardroom closed round me, and the rain pattered against a single window. How dreadful it is to emerge from the oblivion of slumber, and to receive as a good morrow with the mute wailing of one's own hapless heart, to return from the land of deceptive dreams to the heavy knowledge of unchanged disaster, thus was it with me, now and forever. The sting of other griefs might be blunted by time, and even mine yielded sometimes during the day, to the pleasure inspired by the imagination or the senses,

Starting point is 17:17:37 but I never look first upon the morning light, but with my fingers pressed tight on my bursting heart, and my soul deluged with the interminable flood of hopeless misery. Now I awoke for the first time in the dead world. I awoke alone, and the dull dirge of the sea, heard even amidst the rain recalled me to the reflection of the wretch I had become. The sound came like a reproach, a scoff, like the sting of remorse in the soul. I gasped, the veins and muscles of my throat swelled suffocating me.

Starting point is 17:18:08 I put my fingers to my ears. I buried my head in the leaves of my couch. I would have dived to the centre to lose hearing of that hideous moan. What a pitiable, forlorn, disconsolate being I was. My very aspect and garb told the tale of my despair. My hair was matted and wild, my limb soiled with salt ooze. While at sea I had thrown off those of my garments that encumbered me. And the rain drenched the thin summer clothing I had retained.

Starting point is 17:18:38 My feet were bare and the stunted reeds and broken shells made them bleed. the while I hurried to and fro now looking earnestly on some distant rock which, islanded in the sands, bore for a moment a deceptive appearance, now with flashing eyes reproaching the murderous ocean for its unutterable cruelty. For a moment I compared myself to that monarch of the waste, Robinson Crusoe. We had been both thrown companionless, he on the shore of a desolate island, eye on that of a desolate world. I was rich in the so-called goods of life. If I turned my steps from the near barren scene and entered any of the earth's million cities, I should find their wealth stored up for my accommodation, clothes, food, books, and a choice of dwelling beyond the command of the princes of former times. Every climate was subject to my selection, while he was obliged to toil in the acquirement of every necessary, and was the inhabitant of a tropical island against whose heats and storms he could obtain small shelter. Viewing the question thus, who would not have preferred the ciburit enjoyments I would command, the philosophic leisure and ample intellectual resources to his life of labor and peril? Yet he was far happier than I, for he could hope, nor hope in vain, the destined vessel at last arrived, to bear him to countrymen and kindred, where the events of his solitude became a

Starting point is 17:20:04 fireside tale. To none could I ever relate to the story of my adversity. No hope. No hope had I. He knew that, beyond the ocean which begirt his lonely island, thousands lived whom the sun enlightened when it shone also on him. Beneath the meridian sun and visiting moon, I alone bore human features. I alone could give articulation to thought, and when I slept, both day and night were unbeheld of any. He had fled from his fellows and was transported with terror at the print of a human foot. I would have knelt down and worshipped the same. the wild and cruel caribbee the merciless cannibal or worse than these the uncouth brute and remorseless veteran of the vices of civilization would have been to me a beloved companion a treasure dearly prized his nature would be kin to mine his form cast in the same mould human blood would flow in his veins a human sympathy must link us for ever it cannot be that i shall never behold a fellow being more never never

Starting point is 17:21:07 not in the course of years shall i wake and speak to none past the interminable hours my soul islanded in the world a solitary point surrounded by vacuum will day follow day endlessly thus no no a god rules the world providence has not exchanged its golden sceptre for an aspic sting away let me fly from the ocean grave let me depart from this barren nook paled in as it is from access by its own desolateness Let me tread once again the paved towns, step over the threshold of man's dwellings, and most certainly I shall find this thought a horrible vision, a maddening but evanescent dream. I entered Ravenna, the town nearest to the spot whereon I had been cast, before the second sun had set on the empty world. I saw many living creatures, oxen, and horses, and dogs, but there was no man among them. I entered a cottage, it was vacant.

Starting point is 17:22:02 I ascended the marble stairs of a palace, the back, and the owls were nestled in the tapestry. I stepped softly, not to awaken the sleeping town. I rebuked a dog that by yelping disturbed the sacred stillness. I would not believe that all was, as it seemed. The world was not dead, but I was mad. I was deprived of sight, hearing, and sense of touch. I was laboring under the force of a spell, which permitted me to behold all sights of earth, except its human inhabitants. They were pursuing their ordinary labors. Every house, had its inmate, but I could not perceive them. If I could have deluded myself into a belief of this kind, I should have been far more satisfied. But my brain tenacious of its reason refused to lend

Starting point is 17:22:47 itself to such imaginations. And though I endeavored to play the antic to myself, I knew that I, the offspring of man, during long years one among many, now are my sole survivor of my species. The sun sank behind the western hills. I had fasted since the preceding evening, but, though faint and weary I loathed food, nor ceased while yet a ray of light remained, to pace the lonely streets. Night came on, and sent every living creature but me to the bosom of its mate. It was my solace, to blunt my mental agony by personal hardship. Of the thousand beds around, I would not seek the luxury of one. I lay down on the pavement. A cold marble step served me for a pillow. Midnight came, and then, though not before, did my wearied lids shut out the sight of the

Starting point is 17:23:35 twinkling stars and the reflex on the pavement near. Thus, I pass the second night of my desolation. End of Chapter 9. Volume 3, Chapter 10 of The Last Man. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Christine Blashford, www.

Starting point is 17:24:09 www.sidepodcast.com. The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Volume 3, Chapter 10. I awoke in the morning, just as the higher windows of the lofty houses received the first beams of the rising sun. The birds were chirping, perched on the window-sills, and deserted thresholds of the doors. I awoke, and my first thought was, Adrian and Clara are dead. I no longer shall be hailed by their good morrow, or past the long day in their society. I shall never see them more.

Starting point is 17:24:36 The ocean has robbed me of them, stolen their hearts of love from their breasts, and given over to corruption what was dearer to me than light or life or hope. I was an untaught shepherd-boy when Adrian Dane to confer on me his friendship. The best years of my life had been passed with him. All I had possessed of this world's goods of happiness, knowledge, or virtue, I owed to him. He had, in his person, his intellect and rare qualities, given a glory to my life, which, without him, it had never known. Beyond all other beings he had taught me that goodness, pure and single, can be an attribute of man. It was a sight for angels to congregate, to behold, to view him lead, govern, and solace the last days of the human race.

Starting point is 17:25:13 my lovely clara also was lost to me she who last of the daughters of man exhibited all those feminine and maiden virtues which poets painters and sculptors have in their various languages strove to express yet as far as she was concerned could i lament that she was removed in early youth from the certain advent of misery pure she was of soul and all her intents were holy but her heart was the throne of love and the sensibility her lovely countenance expressed was the profit of many woes not the less deep and drear because she would have for ever concealed them these two wondrously endowed beings had been spared from the universal wreck to be my companions during the last year of solitude i had felt while they were with me all their worth i was conscious that every other sentiment regret or passion had by degrees merged into a yearning clinging affection for them i had not forgotten the sweet partner of my youth mother of my children, my adored Idris, but I saw at least a part of her spirit alive again in her brother, and after, that by Evelyn's death I had lost what most dearly recalled her to me, I enshrined her memory in Adrian's form, and endeavoured to confound the two dear ideas. I sound the depths of my heart, and try in vain to draw thence the expressions that can typify my love for those remnants of my race. If regret and sorrow came athwart me, as well it

Starting point is 17:26:22 might in our solitary and uncertain state, the clear tones of Adrian's voice and his fervent look dissipated the gloom or i was cheered unaware by the mild content and sweet resignation clara's cloudless brow and deep blue eyes expressed they were all to me the sons of my benighted soul repose in my weariness slumber in my sleepless woe ill most ill with disjointed words bare and weak have i expressed the feeling with which i clung to them i would have wound myself like ivy inextricably round them so that the same blow might destroy us i would have entered and been a part of them so that if the dull substance of my flesh were thought even now i had accompanied them to the same blow might destroy us i would have entered and been a part of them so that if the dull substance of my flesh were thought even now i had accompanied them to the their new and incommunicable abode. Never shall I see them more. I am bereft of their deer converse, bereft of sight of them. I am a tree rent by lightning, never will the bark close over the bared fibres, never will their quivering life, torn by the winds, receive the opiate of a moment's balm. I am alone in the world. But that expression as yet was less pregnant with misery than that Adrian and Clara are dead. The tide of thought and feeling rolls

Starting point is 17:27:21 on forever the same, though the banks and shapes around which govern its course and the reflection in the way vary. Thus the sentiment of immediate loss in some sort decayed, while that of utter irremediable loneliness grew on me with time. Three days I wandered through Ravenna, now thinking only of the beloved beings who slept in the oozy caves of ocean, now looking forward on the dread blank before me, shuddering to make an onward step, writhing at each change that marked the progress of the hours. For three days I wandered to and fro in this melancholy town. I passed whole hours in going from house to house, listening whether I could detect some lurking sign of human existence, Sometimes I rang at a bell, it tinkled through the vaulted rooms, and silence succeeded to the sound.

Starting point is 17:28:00 I called myself hopeless, yet still I hoped, and still disappointment ushered in the hours, intruding the cold, sharp steel which first pierced me into the aching, festering wound. I fed like a wild beast which seizes its food only when stung by intolerable hunger. I did not change my garb or seek the shelter of a roof during all those days. Burning heats, nervous irritation, a ceaseless but confused flow of thought, sleepless nights and days, instinct with a frenzy of agitation, possessed me during that time. As the fever of my blood increased, a desire of wandering came upon me, I remember that the sun had set on the fifth day after my wreck,

Starting point is 17:28:34 when, without purpose or aim, I quitted the town of Ravenna. I must have been very ill. Had I been possessed by more or less of delirium, that night had surely been my last, for, as I continued to walk on the banks of the mantone, whose upward course I followed, I looked wistfully on the stream, acknowledging to myself that its pellucid waves could medicine my woes for ever, and was unable to account myself for my tardiness in seeking their shelter from the poisoned arrows of thought that were piercing me through and through. I walked a considerable part of the night, and excessive weariness at length conquered my

Starting point is 17:29:03 repugnance to the availing myself of the deserted habitations of my species. The waning moon which had just riven showed me a cottage whose neat entrance and trim garden reminded me of my own England. I lifted up the latch of the door and entered. A kitchen first presented itself, where, guided by the moonbeams, I found materials for striking a light. Within this was a bedroom. The couch was furnished with sheets of snowy whiteness, the wood piled on the hearth, and an array as for a meal might almost have deceived me into the dear belief that I had here found what I had so long sought. One survivor, a companion for my loneliness, a solace to my despair. I steeled myself against the delusion. The room itself was

Starting point is 17:29:39 vacant. It was only prudent I repeated to myself, to examine the rest of the house. I fancied that I was proof against the expectation, yet my heart beat audibly as I laid my hand on the lock of each door, and it sunk again when I perceived in each the same vacancy. Dark and silent they were as vaults, so I returned to the first chamber, wondering what sightless host had spread the materials for my repast and my repose. I drew a chair to the table, and examined what the vians were of which I was to partake. Intruth it was a death feast, the bread was blue and mouldy, the cheese lay a heap of dust. I did not dare examine the other dishes, a troop of ants passed in a double line across the

Starting point is 17:30:14 tablecloth. Every utensil was covered with dust, with cobwebs, and myriads of dead flies. these were objects each and all betokening the fallaciousness of my expectations tears rushed into my eyes surely this was a wanton display of the power of the destroyer what had i done that each sensitive nerve was thus to be anatomized yet why complain more now than ever this vacant cottage revealed no new sorrow the world was empty mankind was dead i knew it well why quarrel therefore with an acknowledged and stale truth yet as i said i had hoped in the very heart of despair so that every new impression of the hard-cut reality on my soul brought with it a fresh pang telling me the yet unstudy lesson that neither change of place nor time could bring alleviation to my misery but that as i now was i must continue day after day month after month year after year while i lived i hardly dared conjecture what space of time that expression implied it is true i was no longer in the first blush of manhood neither had i declined far in the vale of years men have accounted mine the prime of life i had just entered my thirty-seventh year every limb was as well knit every articulation as true as when i had acted the shepherd on the hills of cumberland and with these advantages i was to commence the train of solitary life such were the reflections that ushered in my slumber on that night the shelter however and less disturbed repose which i enjoyed restored me the following morning to a greater portion of health and strength than i had experienced since my fatal shipwreck among the stores i had discovered on searching the cottage the preceding night was a quantity of dried grapes these refreshed me in the morning as i left my lodging and proceeded towards a town which i discerned at no great distance as far as i could divine it must have been fauly i entered with pleasure its wide and grassy streets all it is true pictured the excess of death

Starting point is 17:31:52 desolation, yet I loved to find myself in those spots which had been the abode of my fellow-creatures. I delighted to traverse street after street, to look up at the tall houses, and repeat to myself, once they contained being similar to myself, I was not always the wretch I am now. The wide square of Fawley, the arcade around it, its light and pleasant aspect, cheered me. I was pleased with the idea that, if the earth should be again peopled, we, the lost race, would in the relics left behind present no contemptible exhibition of our powers to the newcomers. I entered one of the palaces and opened the door of a magnificent saloon. I started, I looked again with renewed wonder. What wild-looking, unkempt half-naked savage was that before me? The surprise was momentary.

Starting point is 17:32:31 I perceived that it was I myself whom I beheld in a large mirror at the end of the hall. No wonder that the lover of the princely Idris should fail to recognise himself in the miserable object there portrayed. My tattered dress was that in which I had crawled half alive from the tempestuous sea. My long and tangled hair hung in elf-locks on my brow, my dark eyes now hollow and wild. gleamed from under them. My cheeks were discoloured by the jaundice which, the effect of misery and neglect, suffused my skin, and were half hid by a beard of many day's growth. Yet why should I not remain thus, I thought, the world is dead, and this squalid attire is a fitter morning garb than the foppery of a black suit, and thus methinks I should have remained, had not hope, without which

Starting point is 17:33:08 I do not believe man could exist, whispered to me, that, in such a plight I should be an object of fear and aversion to the being, preserved I knew not where, but I fondly trusted at length to be found by me. Will my readers scorn the vanity that made me attire myself with some care, for the sake of this visionary being, or will they forgive the freaks of a half-crazed imagination? I can easily forgive myself, for hope, however vague, was so dear to me, and a sentiment of pleasure of so rare occurrence, that I yielded readily to any idea that cherished the one, or promised any recurrence of the former to my sorrowing heart. After such occupation, I visited every street, alley, and nook of folly. These Italian towns presented an appearance of still greater

Starting point is 17:33:45 desolation than those of England or France. Plague had appeared here earlier. It had finished its course and achieved its work much sooner than with us. Probably the last summer had found no human being alive, in all the track included between the shores of Calabria and the Northern Alps. My search was utterly vain, yet I did not despond. Reason, methought, was on my side, and the chances were by no means contemptible that there should exist in some part of Italy a survivor like myself, of a wasted depopulate land, as therefore I rambled through the empty town I formed my plan for future operations. I would continue to journey on towards Rome, after I should have satisfied myself by a narrow search that I left behind no human being in the towns

Starting point is 17:34:22 through which I passed, I would write up in a conspicuous part of each with white paint, in three languages that, Verney, the last of the race of Englishmen, had taken up his abode in Rome. In pursuance of this scheme, I entered a painter's shop and procured myself the paint. It is strange that so trivial an occupation should have consoled and even enlivened me, but grief renders one childish, despair fantastic. To this soon, simple inscription i merely added the adjuration friend come i wait for thee de vieni tisbetto on the following morning with something like hope for my companion i quitted folly on my way to rome until now agonizing retrospect and dreary prospects for the future had stung me when awake and cradled me to my repose many times i had delivered myself up to the tyranny of anguish many times i resolved a speedy end to my woes and death by my own hands was a remedy whose practicability was even cheering to me what could i fear in the other world if there were a hell and i were doomed to it i should come an adept to the sufferance of its tortures the act were easy the speedy and certain end of my deplorable tragedy but now these thoughts faded before the new-born expectation i went on my way not as before feeling each hour each minute to be an age instinct with incalculable pain as i wandered along the plain at the foot of the appennines through their valleys and over their bleak summits

Starting point is 17:35:35 my path led me through a country which had been troddened by heroes visited and admired by thousands they had as a tide receded leaving me blank and bare in the midst but why complain did i not hope so i schooled myself even after the enlivening spirit had really deserted me and thus i was obliged to call up all the fortitude i could command and that was not much to prevent a recurrence of that chaotic and intolerable despair that had succeeded to the miserable shipwreck that had consummated every fear and dashed to annihilation every joy i rose each day with the morning sun and left my desolate inn as my feet strayed through the unpeopled country my thoughts rambled through the universe and i was least miserable when i could absorbed in reverie forget the passage of the hours each evening in spite of weariness i detested to enter any dwelling there to take up my nightly abode i have sat hour after hour at the door of the cottage i had selected unable to lift the latch and meet face to face blank desertion within many nights though autumnal mists were spread around i passed under an ilex many times i have supped on arbutusbury and chestnuts, making a fire gypsy-like on the ground, because wild natural scenery reminded me less acutely of my hopeless state of loneliness. I counted the days and bore with me a peeled willow-wond, on which, as well as I could remember, I had notched the days that had elapsed since my wreck, and each night I added another unit to the melancholy sum. I had toiled

Starting point is 17:36:51 up a hill which led to Spoileto. A round was spread a plain, encircled by the chestnut-covered a penines. A dark ravine was on one side, spanned by an aqueduct whose tall arches were rooted in the dell below, and attested that man had to beck. had once deigned to bestow labour and thought here to adorn and civilise nature. Savage and grateful nature, which in wild sport defaced his remains, protruding her easily renewed and fragile growth of wild flowers and parasite plants around his eternal edifices. I sat on a fragment of rock and looked round. The sun had bathed in gold the western atmosphere, and in the east the clouds caught the radiance, and budded into transient loveliness. It set on a world that contained me alone

Starting point is 17:37:27 for its inhabitant. I took out my wand, I counted the marks. Twenty-five were already traced, twenty-five days had already elapsed since human voice had gladdened my ears, or human countenance met my gaze. Twenty-five long, weary days, succeeded by dark and lonesome nights, had mingled with foregone years, and had become a part of the past, the never-to-be-recalled, a real, undeniable portion of my life, twenty-five long, long days. Why this was not a month? Why talk of days or weeks or months? I must grasp years in my imagination, if I would truly picture the future to myself, three, five, ten, twenty, fifty, fifty, fifties of that fatal epoch might elapse, every year containing twelve months each of more numerous calculation in a diary than the twenty-five days gone by can it be will it be we have been used to look forward to death tremulously wherefore but because its place was obscure but more terrible and far more obscure was the unveiled course of my lone futurity

Starting point is 17:38:18 i broke my wand i threw it from me i needed no recorder of the inch and barley corn growth of my life while my unquiet thoughts created other divisions and those ruled over by the planets and in looking back on the age that had elapsed since i had been alone i disdained to give the name of days and a hours to the throes of agony which had in truth portioned it out. I hid my face in my hands, the twitter of the young birds going to rest, and their rustling among the trees disturbed the still evening air. The crickets chirped, the Aziolo cooed at intervals. My thoughts had been of death. These sounds spoke to me of life. I lifted up my eyes, a bat wheeled round, the sun had sunk behind the jagged line of mountains, and the paley crescent moon was visible, silver-white amidst the orange sunset, and accompanied by one bright star, prolonged thus the twilight. a herd of cattle passed along in the dell below untended towards their watering-place the grass was rustled by a gentle breeze and the olive woods mellowed into soft masses by the moonlight contrasted their sea-green with the dark chestnut foliage yes this is the earth there is no change no ruin no rent made in her verdurous expanse

Starting point is 17:39:18 she continues to wheel round and round with alternate night and day through the sky though man is not her adorn or inhabitant why could i not forget myself like one of those animals and no longer suffer the wild tumult of misery that i endure yet ah what a deadly breach yons between their state and mine have not they companions have not they each their mate their cherished young their home which though an express to us is i doubt not endeared and enriched even in their eyes by the society which kind nature has created for them it is i only that am alone i on this little hill-top gazing on plain and mountain recess on sky and its starry population listening to every sound of earth and air and murmuring wave i only cannot express to any companion my many thoughts nor lay my throbbing head on any loved bosom nor drink from meeting eyes and intoxicating dew that transcends the fabulous nectar of the gods shall i not then complain shall i not curse the murderous engine which has mowed down the children of men my brethren shall i not bestow a malediction on every other of nature's offspring which dares live and enjoy while i live and suffer ah no i will discipline my sorrowing heart to sympathy in your joys i will be happy because ye are so live on ye innocence nature's selected darlings i am not much unlike to you nerves pulse brain joint and flesh of such am i composed and ye are organized by the same laws i have something beyond this but i will call it a defect not an endowment if it leads me to misery while ye are happy just then there emerged from a near copse two goats and a little kid by the mother's side they began to browse the herbage of the hill i approached near to them without there perceiving me i gathered a handful of fresh grass and held it out the little one nestled close to its mother while she timidly withdrew the male stepped forward fixing his eyes on me i drew near still holding out my lure while he depressing his head rushed at me with his horns i was a very fool i knew it yet i yielded to my rage i snatched up a huge fragment of rock it would have crushed my rash foe i poised it aimed it then my heart failed me i hurled wide of the mark it rolled clattering among the bushes into dell my little visitants all aghast galloped back

Starting point is 17:41:14 back into the covert of the woods, while I, my very heart bleeding and torn, rush down the hill, and by the violence of bodily exertion, sought to escape from my miserable self. No, no, I will not live among the wild scenes of nature, the enemy of all that lives. I will seek the towns, Rome, the capital of the world, the crown of man's achievements, among its storied streets, hallowed ruins, and stupendous remains of human exertion, I shall not, as here, find everything forgetful of man, trampling on his memory, defacing his works, proclaiming from hill to hill and veil to veil, by the torrents freed from the boundaries which he imposed, by the vegetation liberated from the laws which he enforced, by his

Starting point is 17:41:49 habitation abandoned to mildew in weeds, that his power is lost, his race annihilated forever. I hailed the Tiber, for that was, as it were, an unalienable possession of humanity. I hailed the wild Campania, for every rude had been trod by man, and its savage and cultivation, of no recent date, only proclaimed more distinctly his power, since he had given an honorable name and sacred title to what else would have been a worthless barren track. I entered eternal Rome by the Porta del Popolo, and saluted with awe its time-honoured space. The wide square, the church is near, the long extent of the Corso, the near eminence of Trinita de Monti, appeared like fairy-work. They were so silent, so peaceful and so very fair.

Starting point is 17:42:26 It was evening, and the population of animals which still existed in this mighty city, had gone to rest. There was no sound, save the murmur of its many fountains, whose soft monotony was harmony to my soul. The knowledge that I was in Rome soothed me, that wondrous city, hardly more illustrious for its heroes and sages than for the power it exercised over the imaginations of men i went to rest that night the eternal burning of my heart quenched my senses tranquil the next morning i eagerly began my rambles in search of oblivion i ascended the many terraces of the garden of the colonel place under whose roof i had been sleeping and passing out from it at its summit i found myself on monte cavallo the fountain sparkled in the sun the obelisk above pierced the clear dark blue air the statues in each side the works as they are inscribed of phidias and praxitil and praxis these stood in undiminished grandeur representing castor and pollux who with majestic power tamed the rearing animal at their side if those illustrious artists had in truth chiselled these forms how many passing generations had their giant proportions outlived and now they were viewed by the last of the species they were sculptured to represent and deify i had shrunk into insignificance in my own eyes as i considered the multitudinous beings these stone demigods had outlived but this afterthought restored me to dignity in my own conception the sight of the poetry eternized in those

Starting point is 17:43:40 statues took the sting from the thought, arraying it only in poetic ideality. I repeated to myself, I am in Rome, I behold, and as it were, familiarly conversed with the wonder of the world, sovereign mistress of the imagination, majestic and eternal survivor of millions of generations of extinct men. I endeavoured to quiet the sorrows of my aching heart, by even now taking an interest in what in my youth I had ardently long to see. Every part of Rome is replete with relics of ancient times. The meanest streets are strewed with truncated columns, broken capital, and capital,

Starting point is 17:44:10 capitals corinthian and ionic and sparkling fragments of granite or porphyry the walls of the most penurious dwellings enclose a fluted pillar or ponderous stone which once made part of the palace of the caesar's and the voice of dead time in still vibrations is breathed from these dumb things animated and animated and glorified as they were by man i embraced the vast columns of the temple of jupiter stator which survives in the open space that was the forum and leaning my burning cheek against its cold durability i try to lose the sense of present misery and present desertion by recalling to the haunted cell of my brain vivid memories of times gone by i rejoiced at my success as i figured camillus the grouchy cato and last the heroes of tacitus which shine meteors of surpassing brightness during the murky night of the empire as the verses of horace and virgil or the glowing periods of cicero thronged into the open gates of my mind I felt myself exalted by long-forgotten enthusiasm. I was delighted to know that I beheld the scene which they beheld, the scene which their wives and mothers, and crowds of the unnamed witnessed, while at the same time they honoured, applauded, or wept for these matchless specimens of humanity. At length then I had found a consolation. I had not vainly sought the storied precincts of Rome, I had discovered a medicine for my many and vital wounds. I sat at the foot of these vast columns. The Coliseum whose naked ruin is robed by nature in a verdurous and glowing veil lay in the sunlight on my right, not far off to the left was the tower of the capital triumphal arches the falling walls of many temples strewed the ground at my feet i strove i resolved to force myself to see the plebeian multitude and lofty patrician forms congregated around and as the diorama of ages passed across my subdued fancy they were replaced by the modern roman the pope in his white stole distributing benedictions to the kneeling worshippers the friar in his cowl the dark-eyed girl veiled by her mesera the noisy sunburnt rustic leading his herd of buffaloes and oxen to the campo vicino the romance with which dipping our pencils in the rainbow hues of sky and transcendent nature we to a degree gratuitously endow the italians replaced the solemn grandeur of antiquity i remembered the dark monk and floating figures of the italian and how my boyish blood had thrilled at the description i called to mine carina ascending the capital to be crowned and passing from the heroine to the author reflected how the enchantress spirit of rome held sovereign sway over the minds of the imaginative until it rested on me sole remaining spectator of its wonders i was long wrapped by such ideas but the sole wearies of a pauseless flight and stooping from its wheeling circuits round and round this spot suddenly it fell ten thousand fathom deep into the abyss of the present into self-knowledge into tenfold sadness

Starting point is 17:46:37 i roused myself i cast off my waking dreams and i who just now could almost hear the shouts of the roman throng and was hustled by countless multitudes now beheld the desert ruins of rome sleeping under its own blue sky the shadows lay tranquilly on the ground sheep were grazing untended on the palatine and a buffalo stalked down the sacred way that led to the capital i was alone in the forum alone in rome alone in the world would not one living man one companion in my weary solitude be worth all the glory and remembered power of this time-honoured city double sorrow sadness spread in samarian caves robed my soul in a morning garb the generations i had conjured up to my fancy contrasted more strongly with the end of all the single point in which as a pyramid the mighty fabric of society had ended while i on the giddy height saw vacant space around me from such vague laments i turned to the contemplation of the minutae of my situation so far i had not succeeded in the sole object of my desires the finding a companion for my desolation yet i did not despair it is true that my inscriptions were set up for the most part in insignificant towns and villages yet even without these memorials it was possible that the person who like me should find himself alone in a depopulate land should like me come to rome the more slender my expectation was the more i chose to build on it and to accommodate my actions to this vague possibility it became necessary therefore that for a time i should domesticate myself at rome it became necessary that i should look my disaster in the face not playing the schoolboys part of obedience without submission enduring life and yet rebelling against the laws by which i lived yet how could i resign myself without love without sympathy without communion with any how could i meet the morning sun and with it trace its oft-repeated journey to the evening shades why did i continue to live why not throw off the weary weight of time and with my own hand let out the fluttering prisoner from my agonized breast it was not cowardice that withheld me for the true fortitude was to endure and death had a soothing sound accompanying it that would easily entice me to enter its demesne but this i would not do i had from the moment i had reasoned on the subject instituted myself the subject of fate and the servant of necessity the visible laws of the invisible god

Starting point is 17:48:40 i believed that my obedience was the result of sound reasoning pure feeling and an exalted sense of the true excellence and nobility of my nature could i have seen in this empty earth in the seasons and their change the hand of a blind power only most willingly would i have placed my head on the sod and closed my eyes on its loveliness for ever but fate had administered life to me when the plague had already seized on its prey she had dragged me by the hair from out the strangling waves by such miracles she had brought me for her own i admitted her authority and bowed to her decrees if after mature consideration such was my resolve it was doubly necessary that i should not lose the end of life the improvement of my faculties and poison its flow by repinings without end yet how ceased to repine since there was no hand near to extract the barbed spear that had entered my heart of hearts i stretched out my hand and it touched none whose sensations were responsive to mine i was girded walled in vaulted over by sevenfold barriers of loneliness occupation alone if i could deliver myself up to it would be capable of affording an opiate to my sleepless sense of woe having determined to make row my abode my abode at least for some months, I made arrangements for my accommodation, I selected my home. The Colonna Palace was well adapted for my purpose, its grandeur, its treasure of paintings, its magnificent halls were objects soothing and even exhilarating. I found the granaries of Rome well stored with grain, and particularly with Indian corn,

Starting point is 17:49:56 this product requiring less art in its preparation for food I selected as my principal support. I now found the hardships and lawlessness of my youth turned to account. A man cannot throw off the habits of sixteen years. Since that age, it is true, I had lived luxuriously, or it is, least surrounded by all the conveniences civilization afforded but before that time i had been as uncoutha savage as the wolf-bred founder of old rome and now in rome itself robber and shepherd propensities similar to those of its founder were of advantage to its sole inhabitant i spent the morning riding and shooting in the campagna i passed long hours in the various galleries i gazed at each statue and lost myself in a reverie before many a fair madonna or beauteous nymph i haunted the vatican and stood surrounded by marble forms of divine beauty each stone deity was possessed by the possessed by sacred gladness and the eternal fruition of love they looked on me with unsympathizing complacency and often in wild accents i reproached them for their supreme indifference for they were human shapes the human form divine was manifest in each fairest limb and lineament the perfect moulding brought with it the idea of colour and motion often half in bitter mockery half in self-delusion i clasped their icy proportions and coming between cupid and if syke's lips pressed the unconceiving marble

Starting point is 17:51:05 i endeavoured to read i visited the libraries of rome i selected a volume and choosing some sequestred shady nook on the banks of the tiber or opposite the fair temple in the borghese gardens or under the old pyramid of cestius i endeavoured to conceal me from myself and immerse myself in the subject traced on the pages before me as if in the same soil you plant night-shade and a myrtle tree they will each appropriate the mould moisture and air administered for the fostering their several properties so did my grief find sustenance and power of existence and growth in what else had been divine manner to feed radiant meditation ah while i streak this paper with the tale of what my so-named occupations were while i shaped the skeleton of my days my hand trembles my heart pants and my brain refuses to lend expression or phrase or idea by which to image forth the veil of unutterable woe that clothed these bare realities o worn and beating heart may i dissect thy five and tell how in each unmitigable misery sadness dire repinings and despair existed may i record my many ravings the wild curses i hurled at torturing nature and how i have past days shut out from light and food from all except the burning hell alive in my own bosom i was presented meantime with one other occupation the one best fitted to discipline my melancholy thoughts which strayed backwards over many a ruin and through many a flowery glade even to the mountain recess from which in early youth i had first emerged during one of my rambles through the habitations of rome i found writing materials on a table in an author's study parts of a manuscript lay scattered about it contained a learned disquisition on the italian language one page an unfinished dedication to posterity for whose profit the writer had sifted and selected the niceties of this harmonious language to whose everlasting benefit he bequeathed his labours. I also will write a book, I cried, For whom to read, to whom dedicated,

Starting point is 17:52:45 and then with silly flourish, what so capricious and childish as despair, I wrote, Dedication to the illustrious dead, Shadows, arise, and read your fall, behold the history of the last man. Yet will not this world be re-peopled, and the children of a saved pair of lovers,

Starting point is 17:52:58 in some to me unknown and unattainable seclusion, wandering to these prodigious relics of the anti-pestellential race, seek to learn how being so wondrous in their achievements, with imaginations infinite and powers godlike had departed from their home to an unknown country. I will write and leave in this most ancient city this world's sole monument, a record of these things. I will leave a monument of the existence of Verney, the last man. At first I thought only to speak of plague of death and last of desertion, but I lingered fondly on my early years and recorded with sacred zeal the virtues of my companions.

Starting point is 17:53:30 They have been with me during the fulfilment of my task. I have brought it to an end. I lift my eyes from my paper. again they are lost to me again i feel that i am alone a year has passed since i have been thus occupied the seasons have made their wonted round and deck this eternal city in a changeful robe of surpassing beauty a year has passed and i no longer guess at my state or my prospects loneliness is my familiar sorrow my inseparable companion i have endeavoured to brave the storm i have endeavoured to school myself to fortitude i have sought to imbue myself with the lessons of wisdom it will not do my hair has become nearly grey my voice unused now to utter sound comes straight angely on my ears my person with its human powers and features seem to me a monstrous excrescence of nature how express in human language a woe human being until this hour never knew how give intelligible expression to a pang none but i could ever understand no one has entered

Starting point is 17:54:20 rome none will ever come i smile bitterly at the delusion i have so long nourished and still more when i reflected i have exchanged it for another as delusive as false but to which i now cling with the same fond trust winter has come again and the gardens of rome have lost their leaves the sharp air comes over the Campagna, and has driven its brute inhabitants to take up their abode in the many dwellings of the deserted city. Frost has suspended the gushing fountains, and Trevi has stilled her eternal music. I had made a rough calculation aided by the stars, by which I endeavoured to ascertain the first day of the new year. In the old outworn age, the sovereign pontiff was used to go in solemn pomp, and mark the renewal of the year of the year, by driving a nail in the gate of the Temple of Janus. On that day I ascended St. Peter's, and carved on its topmost stone the era two thousand hundred, last year of the world. my only companion was a dog a shaggy fellow half-water and half-shepherds dog whom i found tending sheep in the campagna his master was dead but nevertheless he continued fulfilling his duties in expectation of his return of his return to the flock and sedulously kept off every intruder riding in the campagna i had come upon his sheep-walk and for some time observed his repetition of lessons learned from man now useless though unforgotten his delight was excessive when he saw me he sprung up to my knees he capered round and round wagging his tail with the short quick bark of pleasure he left his fold to follow me and from that day has never neglected to watch by and attend on me showing boisterous gratitude whenever i caressed or talk to him his pattering steps and mine alone were heard when we entered the magnificent extent of nave and isle of st peter's we ascended the myriad steps together when on the summit i achieved my design and in rough figures noted the date of the last year i then turned to gaze on the country and to take leave of rome i had long determined to quit it and i now formed the plan i would adopt for my future career after i had left this magnificent abode a solitary

Starting point is 17:56:07 being is by instinct a wanderer and that i would become a hope of amelioration always attends on change of place which would even lighten the burthen of my life i had been a fool to remain in rome all this time rome noted for malaria the famous caterer for death but it was still possible that could i visit the whole extent of earth i should find in some part of the wide extent a survivor methought the sea-side was the most probable retreat to be chosen by such a one if left alone in an inland district still they could not continue in the spot where their last hopes had been extinguished they would journey on like me in search of a partner for their solitude till the watery barrier stopped their further progress to that water cause of my woes perhaps now to be their cure i would betake myself farewell italy farewell thou ornament of the world matchless rome the retreat of the solitary one during long months, to civilized life, to the settled home and succession of monotonous days, farewell. Peril will now be mine, and I hail her as a friend. Death will perpetually cross my path, and I will meet him as a benefactor. Hardship, inclement weather, and dangerous tempests will be my sworn mates. Ye spirits of storm receive me, ye powers of destruction, open wide your arms, and clasp me forever. If a kinder power have not decreed another end, so that after long

Starting point is 17:57:14 endurance i may reap my reward and again feel my heart beat near the heart of another like to me tiber the road which is spread by nature's own hand threading her continent was at my feet and many a boat was tethered to the banks i would with a few books provisions and my dog embark in one of these and float down the current of the stream into the sea and then keeping near land i would coast the beauteous shores and sunny promontories of the blue mediterranean past naples along calabria and would dare the twin perils of scylla and charibdis then with fearless aim for what had i to lose skim o'd ocean surface towards Malta and the further cyclades. I would avoid Constantinople, the sight of whose well-known towers and inlets belong to another state of existence from my present one. I would coast Asia Minor and Syria, and, passing the Seven Mouth Nile, steer northward again, till losing sight of forgotten Carthage and deserted Libya I should reach the pillars of Hercules, and then, no matter where the oozy caves and soundless depths of ocean may be my dwelling, before I accomplish this long-drawn voyage, or the arrow of disease find my heart as I float

Starting point is 17:58:11 singly on the weltering mediterranean or in some place i touch at i may find what i seek a companion or if this may not be to endless time decrepid and grey-headed youth already in the grave with those i love the lone wanderer his sail and clasp the till obeying the breezes of heaven for ever round another and another promontory anchoring in another and another bay still ploughing sealess ocean leaving behind the verdant land of native europe adown the towny shore of africa having weathered the fierce seas of the cape i may morm my worn skiff in a creek shaded by spicy groves of the odorous islands of the far Indian Ocean. These are wild dreams. Yet since, now, a week ago, they came on me, as I stood on the height of St. Peter's. They have ruled my imagination. I have chosen my boat, and laid in my scant stores. I have selected a few books, the principal are Homer and Shakespeare,

Starting point is 17:58:59 but the libraries of the world are thrown open to me, and in any port I can renew my stock. I form no expectation of alteration for the better, but the monotonous present is intolerable to me. Neither hope nor joy are my pilots, restless to see. spare and fierce desire of change lead me on. I long to grapple with danger, to be excited by fear, to have some task, however slight or voluntary, for each day's fulfillment. I shall witness all the variety of appearance that the elements can assume. I shall read fair augury in the rainbow, menace in the cloud, some lesson or record dear to my heart in everything. Thus, around the shores of deserted earth, while the sun is high and the moon waxes or wanes, angels,

Starting point is 17:59:36 the spirits of the dead, and the ever-open eye of the supreme, will behold the tiny bark, Freighted with Verney, The Last Man. End of Volume 3, Chapter 10, and End of, The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Classic Audiobook Collection - The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ~ Full Audiobook [scifi]

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