Frankenstein Part 9

He could not live under the horrors that were acc.u.mulated around him; the springs of existence suddenly gave way; he was unable to rise from his bed, and in a few days he died in my arms.

What then became of me? I know not; I lost sensation, and chains and darkness were the only objects that pressed upon me. Sometimes, indeed, I dreamt that I wandered in fowery meadows and pleasant vales with the friends of my youth, but I awoke and found myself in a dungeon. Melancholy followed, but by degrees I gained a clear conception of my miseries and situation and was then released from my prison. For they had called me mad, and during many months, as I understood, a solitary cell had been my habitation.

Liberty, however, had been a useless gif to me, had I not, as I awakened to reason, at the same time awakened to revenge. As the memory of past misfortunes pressed upon me, I began to refect on their cause-the monster whom I had created, the miserable daemon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction. I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head.

Nor did my hate long confne itself to useless wishes; I began to refect on the best means of securing him; and for this purpose, about a month afer my release, I repaired to a criminal judge in the town and told him that I had an accusation to make, that I knew the destroyer of my family, and that I required him to exert his whole authority for the apprehension of the murderer.

Te magistrate listened to me with attention and kindness. 'Be a.s.sured, sir,' said he, 'no pains or exertions on my part shall be spared to discover the villain.'

'I thank you,' replied I; 'listen, therefore, to the deposition that I have to make. It is indeed a tale so strange that I should fear you would not credit it were there not something in truth which, however wonderful, forces conviction.

Te story is too connected to be mistaken for a dream, and I have no motive for falsehood.' My manner as I thus addressed him was impressive but calm; I had formed in my own heart a resolution to pursue my destroyer to death, and this purpose quieted my agony and for an interval reconciled me to life. I now related my history briefy but with frmness and precision, marking the dates with accuracy and never deviating into invective or exclamation.

Te magistrate appeared at frst perfectly incredulous, but as I continued he became more attentive and interested; I saw him sometimes shudder with horror; at others a lively surprise, unmingled with disbelief, was painted on his countenance.

When I had concluded my narration I said, 'Tis is the being whom I accuse and for whose seizure and punishment I call upon you to exert your whole power. It is your duty as a magistrate, and I believe and hope that your feelings as a man will not revolt from the execution of those functions on this occasion.'

Tis address caused a considerable change in the physiognomy of my own auditor. He had heard my story with that half kind of belief that is given to a tale of spirits and supernatural events; but when he was called upon to act ofcially in consequence, the whole tide of his incredulity returned.

He, however, answered mildly, 'I would willingly aford you every aid in your pursuit, but the creature of whom you speak appears to have powers which would put all my exertions to defance. Who can follow an animal which can traverse the sea of ice and inhabit caves and dens where no man would venture to intrude? Besides, some months have elapsed since the commission of his crimes, and no one can conjecture to what place he has wandered or what region he may now inhabit.'

'I do not doubt that he hovers near the spot which I inhabit, and if he has indeed taken refuge in the Alps, he may be hunted like the chamois and destroyed as a beast of prey.

But I perceive your thoughts; you do not credit my narrative and do not intend to pursue my enemy with the punishment which is his desert.'

As I spoke, rage sparkled in my eyes; the magistrate was intimidated. 'You are mistaken,' said he. 'I will exert myself, and if it is in my power to seize the monster, be a.s.sured that he shall sufer punishment proportionate to his crimes. But I fear, from what you have yourself described to be his properties, that this will prove impracticable; and thus, while every proper measure is pursued, you should make up your mind to disappointment.'

'Tat cannot be; but all that I can say will be of little avail.

My revenge is of no moment to you; yet, while I allow it to be a vice, I confess that it is the devouring and only pa.s.sion of my soul. My rage is unspeakable when I refect that the murderer, whom I have turned loose upon society, still exists. You refuse my just demand; I have but one resource, and I devote myself, either in my life or death, to his destruction.'

I trembled with excess of agitation as I said this; there was a frenzy in my manner, and something, I doubt not, of that haughty ferceness which the martyrs of old are said to have possessed. But to a Genevan magistrate, whose mind was occupied by far other ideas than those of devotion and heroism, this elevation of mind had much the appearance of madness. He endeavoured to soothe me as a nurse does a child and reverted to my tale as the efects of delirium.

'Man,' I cried, 'how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom! Cease; you know not what it is you say.'

I broke from the house angry and disturbed and retired to meditate on some other mode of action.

Chapter 24.

My present situation was one in which all voluntary thought was swallowed up and lost. I was hurried away by fury; revenge alone endowed me with strength and composure; it moulded my feelings and allowed me to be calculating and calm at periods when otherwise delirium or death would have been my portion.

My frst resolution was to quit Geneva forever; my country, which, when I was happy and beloved, was dear to me, now, in my adversity, became hateful. I provided myself with a sum of money, together with a few jewels which had belonged to my mother, and departed.

And now my wanderings began which are to cease but with life. I have traversed a vast portion of the earth and have endured all the hards.h.i.+ps which travellers in deserts and barbarous countries are wont to meet. How I have lived I hardly know; many times have I stretched my failing limbs upon the sandy plain and prayed for death. But revenge kept me alive; I dared not die and leave my adversary in being.

When I quitted Geneva my frst labour was to gain some clue by which I might trace the steps of my fendish enemy. But my plan was unsettled, and I wandered many hours round the confnes of the town, uncertain what path I should pursue. As night approached I found myself at the entrance of the cemetery where William, Elizabeth, and my father reposed. I entered it and approached the tomb which marked their graves. Everything was silent except the leaves of the trees, which were gently agitated by the wind; the night was nearly dark, and the scene would have been solemn and afecting even to an uninterested observer. Te spirits of the departed seemed to fit around and to cast a shadow, which was felt but not seen, around the head of the mourner.

Te deep grief which this scene had at frst excited quickly gave way to rage and despair. Tey were dead, and I lived; their murderer also lived, and to destroy him I must drag out my weary existence. I knelt on the gra.s.s and kissed the earth and with quivering lips exclaimed, 'By the sacred earth on which I kneel, by the shades that wander near me, by the deep and eternal grief that I feel, I swear; and by thee, O Night, and the spirits that preside over thee, to pursue the daemon who caused this misery, until he or I shall perish in mortal confict. For this purpose I will preserve my life; to execute this dear revenge will I again behold the sun and tread the green herbage of earth, which otherwise should vanish from my eyes forever. And I call on you, spirits of the dead, and on you, wandering ministers of vengeance, to aid and conduct me in my work. Let the cursed and h.e.l.lish monster drink deep of agony; let him feel the despair that now torments me.'

I had begun my adjuration with solemnity and an awe which almost a.s.sured me that the shades of my murdered friends heard and approved my devotion, but the furies possessed me as I concluded, and rage choked my utterance.

I was answered through the stillness of night by a loud and fendish laugh. It rang on my ears long and heavily; the mountains re-echoed it, and I felt as if all h.e.l.l surrounded me with mockery and laughter. Surely in that moment I should have been possessed by frenzy and have destroyed my miserable existence but that my vow was heard and that I was reserved for vengeance. Te laughter died away, when a well-known and abhorred voice, apparently close to my ear, addressed me in an audible whisper, 'I am satisfed, miserable wretch! You have determined to live, and I am satisfed.'

I darted towards the spot from which the sound proceeded, but the devil eluded my grasp. Suddenly the broad disk of the moon arose and shone full upon his ghastly and distorted shape as he fed with more than mortal speed.

I pursued him, and for many months this has been my task. Guided by a slight clue, I followed the windings of the Rhone, but vainly. Te blue Mediterranean appeared, and by a strange chance, I saw the fend enter by night and hide himself in a vessel bound for the Black Sea. I took my pa.s.sage in the same s.h.i.+p, but he escaped, I know not how.

Amidst the wilds of Tartary and Russia, although he still evaded me, I have ever followed in his track. Sometimes the peasants, scared by this horrid apparition, informed me of his path; sometimes he himself, who feared that if I lost all trace of him I should despair and die, lef some mark to guide me. Te snows descended on my head, and I saw the print of his huge step on the white plain. To you frst entering on life, to whom care is new and agony unknown, how can you understand what I have felt and still feel? Cold, want, and fatigue were the least pains which I was destined to endure; I was cursed by some devil and carried about with me my eternal h.e.l.l; yet still a spirit of good followed and directed my steps and when I most murmured would suddenly extricate me from seemingly insurmountable diffculties. Sometimes, when nature, overcome by hunger, sank under the exhaustion, a repast was prepared for me in the desert that restored and inspirited me. Te fare was, indeed, coa.r.s.e, such as the peasants of the country ate, but I will not doubt that it was set there by the spirits that I had invoked to aid me. Ofen, when all was dry, the heavens cloudless, and I was parched by thirst, a slight cloud would bedim the sky, shed the few drops that revived me, and vanish.

I followed, when I could, the courses of the rivers; but the daemon generally avoided these, as it was here that the population of the country chiefy collected. In other places human beings were seldom seen, and I generally subsisted on the wild animals that crossed my path. I had money with me and gained the friends.h.i.+p of the villagers by distributing it; or I brought with me some food that I had killed, which, afer taking a small part, I always presented to those who had provided me with fre and utensils for cooking.

My life, as it pa.s.sed thus, was indeed hateful to me, and it was during sleep alone that I could taste joy. O blessed sleep! Ofen, when most miserable, I sank to repose, and my dreams lulled me even to rapture. Te spirits that guarded me had provided these moments, or rather hours, of happiness that I might retain strength to fulfl my pilgrimage.

Deprived of this respite, I should have sunk under my hards.h.i.+ps. During the day I was sustained and inspirited by the hope of night, for in sleep I saw my friends, my wife, and my beloved country; again I saw the benevolent countenance of my father, heard the silver tones of my Elizabeth's voice, and beheld Clerval enjoying health and youth. Ofen, when wearied by a toilsome march, I persuaded myself that I was dreaming until night should come and that I should then enjoy reality in the arms of my dearest friends. What agonizing fondness did I feel for them! How did I cling to their dear forms, as sometimes they haunted even my waking hours, and persuade myself that they still lived! At such moments vengeance, that burned within me, died in my heart, and I pursued my path towards the destruction of the daemon more as a task enjoined by heaven, as the mechanical impulse of some power of which I was unconscious, than as the ardent desire of my soul.

What his feelings were whom I pursued I cannot know.

Sometimes, indeed, he lef marks in writing on the barks of the trees or cut in stone that guided me and instigated my fury. 'My reign is not yet over'- these words were legible in one of these inscriptions- 'you live, and my power is complete. Follow me; I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impa.s.sive. You will fnd near this place, if you follow not too tardily, a dead hare; eat and be refreshed. Come on, my enemy; we have yet to wrestle for our lives, but many hard and miserable hours must you endure until that period shall arrive.'

Scofng devil! Again do I vow vengeance; again do I devote thee, miserable fend, to torture and death. Never will I give up my search until he or I perish; and then with what ecstasy shall I join my Elizabeth and my departed friends, who even now prepare for me the reward of my tedious toil and horrible pilgrimage!

As I still pursued my journey to the northward, the snows thickened and the cold increased in a degree almost too severe to support. Te peasants were shut up in their hovels, and only a few of the most hardy ventured forth to seize the animals whom starvation had forced from their hiding-places to seek for prey. Te rivers were covered with ice, and no fsh could be procured; and thus I was cut of from my chief article of maintenance.

Te triumph of my enemy increased with the difculty of my labours. One inscription that he lef was in these words: 'Prepare! Your toils only begin; wrap yourself in furs and provide food, for we shall soon enter upon a journey where your suferings will satisfy my everlasting hatred.'

My courage and perseverance were invigorated by these scofng words; I resolved not to fail in my purpose, and calling on heaven to support me, I continued with unabated fervour to traverse immense deserts, until the ocean appeared at a distance and formed the utmost boundary of the horizon. Oh! How unlike it was to the blue seasons of the south! Covered with ice, it was only to be distinguished from land by its superior wildness and ruggedness. Te Greeks wept for joy when they beheld the Mediterranean from the hills of Asia, and hailed with rapture the boundary of their toils. I did not weep, but I knelt down and with a full heart thanked my guiding spirit for conducting me in safety to the place where I hoped, notwithstanding my adversary's gibe, to meet and grapple with him.

Some weeks before this period I had procured a sledge and dogs and thus traversed the snows with inconceivable speed. I know not whether the fend possessed the same advantages, but I found that, as before I had daily lost ground in the pursuit, I now gained on him, so much so that when I frst saw the ocean he was but one day's journey in advance, and I hoped to intercept him before he should reach the beach. With new courage, therefore, I pressed on, and in two days arrived at a wretched hamlet on the seash.o.r.e. I inquired of the inhabitants concerning the fend and gained accurate information. A gigantic monster, they said, had arrived the night before, armed with a gun and many pistols, putting to fight the inhabitants of a solitary cottage through fear of his terrifc appearance. He had carried of their store of winter food, and placing it in a sledge, to draw which he had seized on a numerous drove of trained dogs, he had harnessed them, and the same night, to the joy of the horror-struck villagers, had pursued his journey across the sea in a direction that led to no land; and they conjectured that he must speedily be destroyed by the breaking of the ice or frozen by the eternal frosts.

On hearing this information I sufered a temporary access of despair. He had escaped me, and I must commence a destructive and almost endless journey across the mountainous ices of the ocean, amidst cold that few of the inhabitants could long endure and which I, the native of a genial and sunny climate, could not hope to survive. Yet at the idea that the fend should live and be triumphant, my rage and vengeance returned, and like a mighty tide, overwhelmed every other feeling. Afer a slight repose, during which the spirits of the dead hovered round and instigated me to toil and revenge, I prepared for my journey.

I exchanged my land-sledge for one fas.h.i.+oned for the inequalities of the frozen ocean, and purchasing a plentiful stock of provisions, I departed from land.

I cannot guess how many days have pa.s.sed since then, but I have endured misery which nothing but the eternal sentiment of a just retribution burning within my heart could have enabled me to support. Immense and rugged mountains of ice ofen barred up my pa.s.sage, and I ofen heard the thunder of the ground sea, which threatened my destruction. But again the frost came and made the paths of the sea secure.

By the quant.i.ty of provision which I had consumed, I should guess that I had pa.s.sed three weeks in this journey; and the continual protraction of hope, returning back upon the heart, ofen wrung bitter drops of despondency and grief from my eyes. Despair had indeed almost secured her prey, and I should soon have sunk beneath this misery. Once, after the poor animals that conveyed me had with incredible toil gained the summit of a sloping ice mountain, and one, sinking under his fatigue, died, I viewed the expanse before me with anguish, when suddenly my eye caught a dark speck upon the dusky plain. I strained my sight to discover what it could be and uttered a wild cry of ecstasy when I distinguished a sledge and the distorted proportions of a well-known form within. Oh! With what a burning gush did hope revisit my heart! Warm tears flled my eyes, which I hastily wiped away, that they might not intercept the view I had of the daemon; but still my sight was dimmed by the burning drops, until, giving way to the emotions that oppressed me, I wept aloud.

But this was not the time for delay; I disenc.u.mbered the dogs of their dead companion, gave them a plentiful portion of food, and afer an hour's rest, which was absolutely necessary, and yet which was bitterly irksome to me, I continued my route. Te sledge was still visible, nor did I again lose sight of it except at the moments when for a short time some ice-rock concealed it with its intervening crags. I indeed perceptibly gained on it, and when, afer nearly two days' journey, I beheld my enemy at no more than a mile distant, my heart bounded within me.

But now, when I appeared almost within grasp of my foe, my hopes were suddenly extinguished, and I lost all trace of him more utterly than I had ever done before. A ground sea was heard; the thunder of its progress, as the waters rolled and swelled beneath me, became every moment more ominous and terrifc. I pressed on, but in vain. Te wind arose; the sea roared; and, as with the mighty shock of an earthquake, it split and cracked with a tremendous and overwhelming sound. Te work was soon fnished; in a few minutes a tumultuous sea rolled between me and my enemy, and I was lef drifing on a scattered piece of ice that was continually lessening and thus preparing for me a hideous death.

In this manner many appalling hours pa.s.sed; several of my dogs died, and I myself was about to sink under the acc.u.mulation of distress when I saw your vessel riding at anchor and holding forth to me hopes of succour and life. I had no conception that vessels ever came so far north and was astounded at the sight. I quickly destroyed part of my sledge to construct oars, and by these means was enabled, with infnite fatigue, to move my ice raf in the direction of your s.h.i.+p. I had determined, if you were going southwards, still to trust myself to the mercy of the seas rather than abandon my purpose. I hoped to induce you to grant me a boat with which I could pursue my enemy. But your direction was northwards. You took me on board when my vigour was exhausted, and I should soon have sunk under my multiplied hards.h.i.+ps into a death which I still dread, for my task is unfulflled.

Oh! When will my guiding spirit, in conducting me to the daemon, allow me the rest I so much desire; or must I die, and he yet live? If I do, swear to me, Walton, that he shall not escape, that you will seek him and satisfy my vengeance in his death. And do I dare to ask of you to undertake my pilgrimage, to endure the hards.h.i.+ps that I have undergone?

No; I am not so selfsh. Yet, when I am dead, if he should appear, if the ministers of vengeance should conduct him to you, swear that he shall not live- swear that he shall not triumph over my acc.u.mulated woes and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes. He is eloquent and persuasive, and once his words had even power over my heart; but trust him not. His soul is as h.e.l.lish as his form, full of treachery and fendlike malice. Hear him not; call on the names of William, Justine, Clerval, Elizabeth, my father, and of the wretched Victor, and thrust your sword into his heart. I will hover near and direct the steel aright.

Walton, in continuation.

August 26th, 17- You have read this strange and terrifc story, Margaret; and do you not feel your blood congeal with horror, like that which even now curdles mine? Sometimes, seized with sudden agony, he could not continue his tale; at others, his voice broken, yet piercing, uttered with difculty the words so replete with anguish. His fne and lovely eyes were now lighted up with indignation, now subdued to downcast sor- row and quenched in infnite wretchedness. Sometimes he commanded his countenance and tones and related the most horrible incidents with a tranquil voice, suppressing every mark of agitation; then, like a volcano bursting forth, his face would suddenly change to an expression of the wildest rage as he shrieked out imprecations on his persecutor.

His tale is connected and told with an appearance of the simplest truth, yet I own to you that the letters of Felix and Safe, which he showed me, and the apparition of the monster seen from our s.h.i.+p, brought to me a greater conviction of the truth of his narrative than his a.s.severations, however earnest and connected. Such a monster has, then, really existence! I cannot doubt it, yet I am lost in surprise and admiration. Sometimes I endeavoured to gain from Frankenstein the particulars of his creature's formation, but on this point he was impenetrable.

'Are you mad, my friend?' said he. 'Or whither does your senseless curiosity lead you? Would you also create for yourself and the world a demoniacal enemy? Peace, peace! Learn my miseries and do not seek to increase your own.'

Frankenstein discovered that I made notes concerning his history; he asked to see them and then himself corrected and augmented them in many places, but princ.i.p.ally in giving the life and spirit to the conversations he held with his enemy. 'Since you have preserved my narration,' said he, 'I would not that a mutilated one should go down to posterity.'

Tus has a week pa.s.sed away, while I have listened to the strangest tale that ever imagination formed. My thoughts and every feeling of my soul have been drunk up by the interest for my guest which this tale and his own elevated and gentle manners have created. I wish to soothe him, yet can I counsel one so infnitely miserable, so dest.i.tute of every hope of consolation, to live? Oh, no! Te only joy that he can now know will be when he composes his shattered spirit to peace and death. Yet he enjoys one comfort, the ofspring of solitude and delirium; he believes that when in dreams he holds converse with his friends and derives from that communion consolation for his miseries or excitements to his vengeance, that they are not the creations of his fancy, but the beings themselves who visit him from the regions of a remote world. Tis faith gives a solemnity to his reveries that render them to me almost as imposing and interesting as truth.

Our conversations are not always confned to his own history and misfortunes. On every point of general literature he displays unbounded knowledge and a quick and piercing apprehension. His eloquence is forcible and touching; nor can I hear him, when he relates a pathetic incident or endeavours to move the pa.s.sions of pity or love, without tears. What a glorious creature must he have been in the days of his prosperity, when he is thus n.o.ble and G.o.dlike in ruin! He seems to feel his own worth and the greatness of his fall.

'When younger,' said he, 'I believed myself destined for some great enterprise. My feelings are profound, but I possessed a coolness of judgment that ftted me for ill.u.s.trious achievements. Tis sentiment of the worth of my nature supported me when others would have been oppressed, for I deemed it criminal to throw away in useless grief those talents that might be useful to my fellow creatures. When I refected on the work I had completed, no less a one than the creation of a sensitive and rational animal, I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors. But this thought, which supported me in the commencement of my career, now serves only to plunge me lower in the dust.

All my speculations and hopes are as nothing, and like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal h.e.l.l. My imagination was vivid, yet my powers of a.n.a.lysis and application were intense; by the union of these qualities I conceived the idea and executed the creation of a man. Even now I cannot recollect without pa.s.sion my reveries while the work was incomplete. I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers, now burning with the idea of their efects. From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofy ambition; but how am I sunk!

Oh! My friend, if you had known me as I once was, you would not recognize me in this state of degradation. Despondency rarely visited my heart; a high destiny seemed to bear me on, until I fell, never, never again to rise.'

Must I then lose this admirable being? I have longed for a friend; I have sought one who would sympathize with and love me. Behold, on these desert seas I have found such a one, but I fear I have gained him only to know his value and lose him. I would reconcile him to life, but he repulses the idea.

'I thank you, Walton,' he said, 'for your kind intentions towards so miserable a wretch; but when you speak of new ties and fresh afections, think you that any can replace those who are gone? Can any man be to me as Clerval was, or any woman another Elizabeth? Even where the afections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.

Tey know our infantine dispositions, which, however they may be aferwards modifed, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives. A sister or a brother can never, unless indeed such symptoms have been shown early, suspect the other of fraud or false dealing, when another friend, however strongly he may be attached, may, in spite of himself, be contemplated with suspicion. But I enjoyed friends, dear not only through habit and a.s.sociation, but from their own merits; and wherever I am, the soothing voice of my Elizabeth and the conversation of Clerval will be ever whispered in my ear. Tey are dead, and but one feeling in such a solitude can persuade me to preserve my life. If I were engaged in any high undertaking or design, fraught with extensive utility to my fellow creatures, then could I live to fulfl it. But such is not my destiny; I must pursue and destroy the being to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fulflled and I may die.'

My beloved Sister, September 2nd I write to you, encompa.s.sed by peril and ignorant whether I am ever doomed to see again dear England and the dearer friends that inhabit it. I am surrounded by mountains of ice which admit of no escape and threaten every moment to crush my vessel. Te brave fellows whom I have persuaded to be my companions look towards me for aid, but I have none to bestow. Tere is something terribly appalling in our situation, yet my courage and hopes do not desert me. Yet it is terrible to refect that the lives of all these men are endangered through me. If we are lost, my mad schemes are the cause.

And what, Margaret, will be the state of your mind? You will not hear of my destruction, and you will anxiously await my return. Years will pa.s.s, and you will have visitings of despair and yet be tortured by hope. Oh! My beloved sister, the sickening failing of your heart-felt expectations is, in prospect, more terrible to me than my own death. But you have a husband and lovely children; you may be happy.

Heaven bless you and make you so!

My unfortunate guest regards me with the tenderest compa.s.sion. He endeavours to fll me with hope and talks as if life were a possession which he valued. He reminds me how ofen the same accidents have happened to other navigators who have attempted this sea, and in spite of myself, he flls me with cheerful auguries. Even the sailors feel the power of his eloquence; when he speaks, they no longer despair; he rouses their energies, and while they hear his voice they believe these vast mountains of ice are molehills which will vanish before the resolutions of man. Tese feelings are transitory; each day of expectation delayed flls them with fear, and I almost dread a mutiny caused by this despair.

September 5th A scene has just pa.s.sed of such uncommon interest that, although it is highly probable that these papers may never reach you, yet I cannot forbear recording it.

We are still surrounded by mountains of ice, still in imminent danger of being crushed in their confict. Te cold is excessive, and many of my unfortunate comrades have already found a grave amidst this scene of desolation. Frankenstein has daily declined in health; a feverish fre still glimmers in his eyes, but he is exhausted, and when suddenly roused to any exertion, he speedily sinks again into apparent lifelessness.

I mentioned in my last letter the fears I entertained of a mutiny. Tis morning, as I sat watching the wan countenance of my friend- his eyes half closed and his limbs hanging listlessly- I was roused by half a dozen of the sailors, who demanded admission into the cabin. Tey entered, and their leader addressed me. He told me that he and his companions had been chosen by the other sailors to come in deputation to me to make me a requisition which, in justice, I could not refuse. We were immured in ice and should probably never escape, but they feared that if, as was possible, the ice should dissipate and a free pa.s.sage be opened, I should be rash enough to continue my voyage and lead them into fresh dangers, afer they might happily have surmounted this. Tey insisted, therefore, that I should engage with a solemn promise that if the vessel should be freed I would instantly direct my course southwards.

Tis speech troubled me. I had not despaired, nor had I yet conceived the idea of returning if set free. Yet could I, in justice, or even in possibility, refuse this demand? I hesitated before I answered, when Frankenstein, who had at frst been silent, and indeed appeared hardly to have force enough to attend, now roused himself; his eyes sparkled, and his cheeks fushed with momentary vigour. Turning towards the men, he said, 'What do you mean? What do you demand of your captain? Are you, then, so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition? And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and terror, because at every new incident your fort.i.tude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited, because danger and death surrounded it, and these you were to brave and overcome. For this was it a glorious, for this was it an honourable undertaking. You were here afer to be hailed as the benefactors of your species, your names adored as belonging to brave men who encountered death for honour and the beneft of mankind. And now, be hold, with the frst imagination of danger, or, if you will, the frst mighty and terrifc trial of your courage, you shrink away and are content to be handed down as men who had not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm fresides.

Why, that requires not this preparation; ye need not have come thus far and dragged your captain to the shame of a defeat merely to prove yourselves cowards. Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and frm as a rock. Tis ice is not made of such stuf as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe.'

He spoke this with a voice so modulated to the diferent feelings expressed in his speech, with an eye so full of lofy design and heroism, that can you wonder that these men were moved? Tey looked at one another and were unable to reply. I spoke; I told them to retire and consider of what had been said, that I would not lead them farther north if they strenuously desired the contrary, but that I hoped that, with refection, their courage would return.

Tey retired and I turned towards my friend, but he was sunk in languor and almost deprived of life.

How all this will terminate, I know not, but I had rather die than return shamefully, my purpose unfulflled. Yet I fear such will be my fate; the men, unsupported by ideas of glory and honour, can never willingly continue to endure their present hards.h.i.+ps.

September 7th Te die is cast; I have consented to return if we are not destroyed. Tus are my hopes blasted by cowardice and indecision; I come back ignorant and disappointed. It requires more philosophy than I possess to bear this injustice with patience.

September 12th It is past; I am returning to England. I have lost my hopes of utility and glory; I have lost my friend. But I will endeavour to detail these bitter circ.u.mstances to you, my dear sister; and while I am wafed towards England and towards you, I will not despond.

September 9th, the ice began to move, and roarings like thunder were heard at a distance as the islands split and cracked in every direction. We were in the most imminent peril, but as we could only remain pa.s.sive, my chief attention was occupied by my unfortunate guest whose illness increased in such a degree that he was entirely confned to his bed. Te ice cracked behind us and was driven with force towards the north; a breeze sprang from the west, and on the 11th the pa.s.sage towards the south became perfectly free. When the sailors saw this and that their return to their native country was apparently a.s.sured, a shout of tumultuous joy broke from them, loud and long-continued.

Frankenstein, who was dozing, awoke and asked the cause of the tumult. 'Tey shout,' I said, 'because they will soon return to England.'

'Do you, then, really return?'

'Alas! Yes; I cannot withstand their demands. I cannot lead them unwillingly to danger, and I must return.'

'Do so, if you will; but I will not. You may give up your purpose, but mine is a.s.signed to me by heaven, and I dare not. I am weak, but surely the spirits who a.s.sist my vengeance will endow me with sufcient strength.' Saying this, he endeavoured to spring from the bed, but the exertion was too great for him; he fell back and fainted.

It was long before he was restored, and I ofen thought that life was entirely extinct. At length he opened his eyes; he breathed with difculty and was unable to speak. Te surgeon gave him a composing draught and ordered us to leave him undisturbed. In the meantime he told me that my friend had certainly not many hours to live.

His sentence was p.r.o.nounced, and I could only grieve and be patient. I sat by his bed, watching him; his eyes were closed, and I thought he slept; but presently he called to me in a feeble voice, and bidding me come near, said, 'Alas! Te strength I relied on is gone; I feel that I shall soon die, and he, my enemy and persecutor, may still be in being. Tink not, Walton, that in the last moments of my existence I feel that burning hatred and ardent desire of revenge I once expressed; but I feel myself justifed in desiring the death of my adversary. During these last days I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I fnd it blamable.

In a ft of enthusiastic madness I created a rational creature and was bound towards him to a.s.sure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being. Tis was my duty, but there was another still paramount to that. My duties towards the beings of my own species had greater claims to my attention because they included a greater proportion of happiness or misery. Urged by this view, I refused, and I did right in refusing, to create a companion for the frst creature. He showed unparalleled malignity and selfshness in evil; he destroyed my friends; he devoted to destruction beings who possessed exquisite sensations, happiness, and wisdom; nor do I know where this thirst for vengeance may end. Miserable himself that he may render no other wretched, he ought to die. Te task of his destruction was mine, but I have failed. When actuated by selfsh and vicious motives, I asked you to undertake my unfnished work, and I renew this request now, when I am only induced by reason and virtue.

'Yet I cannot ask you to renounce your country and friends to fulfl this task; and now that you are returning to England, you will have little chance of meeting with him.

But the consideration of these points, and the well balancing of what you may esteem your duties, I leave to you; my judgment and ideas are already disturbed by the near approach of death. I dare not ask you to do what I think right, for I may still be misled by pa.s.sion.

'Tat he should live to be an instrument of mischief disturbs me; in other respects, this hour, when I momentarily expect my release, is the only happy one which I have enjoyed for several years. Te forms of the beloved dead fit before me, and I hasten to their arms. Farewell, Walton!

Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguis.h.i.+ng your- self in science and discoveries. Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed.'

His voice became fainter as he spoke, and at length, exhausted by his efort, he sank into silence. About half an hour aferwards he attempted again to speak but was unable; he pressed my hand feebly, and his eyes closed forever, while the irradiation of a gentle smile pa.s.sed away from his lips.

Margaret, what comment can I make on the untimely extinction of this glorious spirit? What can I say that will enable you to understand the depth of my sorrow? All that I should express would be inadequate and feeble. My tears fow; my mind is overshadowed by a cloud of disappointment. But I journey towards England, and I may there fnd consolation.

I am interrupted. What do these sounds portend? It is midnight; the breeze blows fairly, and the watch on deck scarcely stir. Again there is a sound as of a human voice, but hoa.r.s.er; it comes from the cabin where the remains of Frankenstein still lie. I must arise and examine. Good night, my sister.

Great G.o.d! what a scene has just taken place! I am yet dizzy with the remembrance of it. I hardly know whether I shall have the power to detail it; yet the tale which I have recorded would be incomplete without this fnal and wonderful catastrophe.

I entered the cabin where lay the remains of my ill-fated and admirable friend. Over him hung a form which I can not fnd words to describe-gigantic in stature, yet uncouth and distorted in its proportions. As he hung over the coffn, his face was concealed by long locks of ragged hair; but one vast hand was extended, in colour and apparent texture like that of a mummy. When he heard the sound of my approach, he ceased to utter exclamations of grief and horror and sprung towards the window. Never did I behold a vision so horrible as his face, of such loathsome yet appalling hideousness. I shut my eyes involuntarily and endeavoured to recollect what were my duties with regard to this destroyer. I called on him to stay.

He paused, looking on me with wonder, and again turning towards the lifeless form of his creator, he seemed to forget my presence, and every feature and gesture seemed instigated by the wildest rage of some uncontrollable pa.s.sion.

'Tat is also my victim!' he exclaimed. 'In his murder my crimes are consummated; the miserable series of my being is wound to its close! Oh, Frankenstein! Generous and self devoted being! What does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst. Alas! He is cold, he cannot answer me.'

His voice seemed sufocated, and my frst impulses, which had suggested to me the duty of obeying the dying request of my friend in destroying his enemy, were now suspended by a mixture of curiosity and compa.s.sion. I approached this tremendous being; I dared not again raise my eyes to his face, there was something so scaring and unearthly in his ugliness. I attempted to speak, but the words died away on my lips. Te monster continued to utter wild and incoherent self-reproaches. At length I gathered resolution to address him in a pause of the tempest of his pa.s.sion.

'Your repentance,' I said, 'is now superfuous. If you had listened to the voice of conscience and heeded the stings of remorse before you had urged your diabolical vengeance to this extremity, Frankenstein would yet have lived.'

'And do you dream?' said the daemon. 'Do you think that I was then dead to agony and remorse? He,' he continued, pointing to the corpse, 'he sufered not in the consummation of the deed. Oh! Not the ten-thousandth portion of the anguish that was mine during the lingering detail of its execution. A frightful selfshness hurried me on, while my heart was poisoned with remorse. Tink you that the groans of Clerval were music to my ears? My heart was fas.h.i.+oned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.