'Give me not a name'--cried Sibella. 'I own none! What am I? a shadow! A
dream!--Will you oblige me?' added she, vehemently grasping Murden's
hand--'Carry to him the name you used to me. Bid him murder that
also.--Oh! your touch is ice!'--she exclaimed, throwing his hand
suddenly from her; 'you have chilled my blood!'
A moment after, she recollected herself. 'Poor Murden!' said she, 'Warm!
warm yourself! Why are you so cold?'
'Because I too am but a shadow,' replied Murden. 'Hear me, Miss Valmont.
I must call you so.--It was when you came to seek your fawn in the Ruin,
that you talked with me there. Do you remember it?'
'I do.'
'Oh, Miss Valmont, Miss Valmont, methought you never looked so lovely,
never was so gentle as while you spake two words--Only two. And can you
not remember that I said to you--When remembrances of love shall be no
longer remembrances of happiness, then--_Die also_.'
'Great God! Do you reproach me with living!' cried Sibella, starting up
in the bed in a phrenzy. 'Know you not I expired when--Oh! Am I not dead
dead already?'
'Then, let the same grave receive us!' Bending forward, he locked her in
his arms, and sunk upon her pillow, never to rise again.
* * * * *
It is easier, my Lord, for you to imagine than for me to describe the
consequence of yesterday's event to my beloved and dying friend. Her
convulsions become each hour more and more rapid and exhausting. Yet she
has intervals of composure and even of rest, and these serve to detain a
little longer her bursting spirit within the fading form. Oh, cruel
those who have been the means of thus early separating a mind and form
so worthy of happiness, so mated to each other! As for myself, I have
endured much, and have much yet to endure, for remembrances of Murden
and Sibella, of their virtues and misfortunes will live with me, will be
the cherished, tender companions of many hours; nor shall that which the
world calls pleasure, ever buy me from one of those hours with the
richest of her temptations.
Last night, while Sibella slept, I would have slept also, but the scene
of yesterday lay a cumbrous load upon my heart. I rose and passed to the
chamber where the corpse of Murden is deposited. His faults fled from
me. I saw only Murden, I remembered him living, and now I looked on him
dead.--My Lord, my Lord, what a contrast!--What a pang!
A smile of something more than peace illumines even now the face from
whence animation is gone for ever. It was his last smile, the smile he
had so dearly purchased. His heart indeed dictated that smile, for it
expanded with joy when he felt he should die with her for whom he died.
Fatal end of an ungoverned passion--virtuous in its object, but vicious
in its excess!
The corpse still remains in the house. Why should I part with it? None
loved him better.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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