652 FRENCH CONVULSIVES. 



hands a mass of long, black hair. At first he took it to be her own ; 

 but death was in its dimness and heaviness. He saw it all : his ir- 

 ritable nerves yielded to the shock he shuddered and fell senseless. 



" ' You have done me a dreadful wrong/ cried he, ' a wrong which it is 

 not in your power to repair ; you can never restore me the confidence I 

 placed in your heart. You have just showed me how much revenge and 

 cruelty it contains. Poor Noun ! poor unfortunate girl ! it is her I have 

 wronged, and not you ; it is she who had the right of revenging herself, and 

 who did not do it. She destroyed herself to leave me a futurity. She sacri- 

 ficed her life to my repose. You had not done as much.' " 



After proceeding at great length in this strain, which we are forced to 

 give in order to exhibit the fluxes and refluxes of sentiment, the vicissi- 

 tudes and rapid transitions of feeling, and the play of the affections, 

 on which the whole interest of the work depends, and which are de- 

 lineated with singular force and accuracy, he is interrupted by the 

 sudden arrival of Colonel Delmare. He retreats by the garden door, 

 and finds Sir Ralph posted, there to receive him. Perhaps you will 

 anticipate a duel as the natural consequence of this rencontre; and 

 such was the idea of Raymon ; but the calm and inflexibly stoical 

 demeanour of Sir Ralph betrayed not the slightest impatience, and 

 he contents himself with asking for the key of the gate, as a pre- 

 caution in favour of Madame Delmare. Such was the all-absorbing 

 passion of Sir Ralph for Indiana, so entirely did it fill his whole soul, 

 and so completely had he learnt to compress his feelings and emotions 

 by the long discipline of years, that he only thought of her happiness. 

 To have killed Raymon were to make her unhappy ; and to such a 

 pitch of madness was he transported by this sentiment, that when he 

 beheld the sufferings of Indiana he felt almost tempted to betray his 

 friend Delmare, and assist the success of his enemy. The return of 

 the Colonel brought with it the news of the utter ruin of his affairs 

 by the failure of a banker in Brussels. He was compelled to sell his 

 estate and to repair to a remnant of property in the Isle of Bourbon, 

 again to set about rebuilding his fortune. He confided his projects 

 to Raymon, and deputed him to break the matter to Indiana. She 

 had taken the resolution of hazarding every thing rather than leave 

 Raymon. This declaration by no means accorded with the disposi- 

 tion of Raymon : he saw, with satisfaction, that events were taking a 

 course which would preserve him from the troublesome and inevitable 

 consequences of a worn-out intrigue. He only thought of profiting 

 by the last moments of passion of Madame Delmare, and then of 

 leaving to his benevolent destiny the care of ridding him of her tears 

 and her reproaches. Besides, he had grown so virtuous by the con- 

 fidence reposed in him by Colonel Delmare, that he would not de- 

 prive him of his wife he would only seduce her. Meantime the 

 period of departure approached. The temper of the Colonel grew 

 every day more insupportable. Indiana openly declared her de- 

 termination not to accompany him, and in this she was encouraged 

 by her aunt. The violence of her husband was carried so far as to 

 confine her to her chamber : she escaped, and fled to Raymon ; but 

 his passion had reached the last degree of disgust, it had descended 

 to ennui. He received her with every studied demonstration of 



