With tears she besought him to spare her. “I feel your power too much,” she said. “All that I ought not—must not say, I think and feel. Be satisfied; your empire is complete. Spare me—save me; I have not power to feign.” Her tears fell now unrestrained. “There is no need of this,” he said, recovering himself; “you have sealed my fate. A moment of passion beguiled me: I am calm now, as when first I met you—calm and cold, even as yourself. Since it is your wish, and since my presence makes your misery, let us part.—I go, as I have often said; but it shall be alone. My country I leave without regret; for the chain of tyranny has encompassed it: friends, I have none; and thou, who wert as an angel of light to me—to whom I knelt for safety and for peace—mayst thou be blest: this is all I ask of heaven. As for me, nothing can increase the misery I feel. I wish you not to believe it, or to share it. This is no lover’s despondency—no sudden and violent paroxysm occasioned by disappointed passion. It is uttered,” he continued, “in the hopelessness of despair: it is the confession, not the repining of a heart that was early blighted and destroyed.” Calantha now interrupted him. “I alone am guilty,” she replied, “talk not of leaving me; we may still be friends—we must never be more.” “Oh! promise that we shall never be less.” Glenarvon looked on her with kindness. “Let no fears dissuade you until I shew myself unworthy of the trust. Forsake not him, whose only happiness is in your affection. I was joyless and without hope, when first I met you; but the return, to loneliness and misery, is hard to bear. Be virtuous, and, if it may be so, be happy.” “That I never more can be,” she answered. “You are young in sin yet,” said Glenarvon; “you know not its dangers, its pleasures, or its bitterness. All this, ere long, will be forgotten.” “Never forgotten,” she replied, “oh never!” CHAPTER XX. Glenarvon wandered forth every evening by the pale moon, and no one knew whither he went, and no one marked but Calantha how late was his return. And when the rain fell heavy and chill, he would bare his forehead to the storm; and faint and weary wander forth, and often he smiled on others and appeared calm, whilst the burning fever of his blood continued to rage within.