FliKXCH CONVULSIVES. 653 



passion, but, in the end, called a coach to reconduct her to her hus- 

 band. Indiana was stupified she quitted the house, and 



" At the first few paces in the street, she felt her trembling limbs ready to 

 refuse their service she fancied every moment she felt the rude grasp of her 

 furious husband seizing her and dragging her into the stream. But very 

 soon the bustle around her, the carelessness of the figures that passed her, 

 and the penetrating cold of the morning, restored her strength and tranquil- 

 lity ; but 'twas a painful strength, and an awful tranquillity, similar to that 

 which spreads itself upon the waters of the sea, alarming the sagacious sea- 

 man more than the commotions of the tempest. She descended the quay, 

 from the Institute to the Corps Legislatif, but she forgot to cross the bridge, 

 and continued to follow the course of the river, absorbed in a stupid reverie 

 a meditation without ideas, and continued to walk forwards without any 

 fixed object. Insensibly she found herself by the margin of the river, with 

 the icicles at her feet, and broke them with a dry, cold noise, upon the stone- 

 work that bounded its waters. The greenish and sounding waters exercised 

 an attractive power upon the senses of Indiana. We become accustomed to 

 terrible ideas ; by entertaining them we are led to take a pleasure in them. 

 The example of the suicide of Noun had long soothed her moments of 

 despair she had long made suicide a sort of fascinating temptation. One 

 thought alone one religious thought, had prevented her from fixing defi- 

 nitively upon it ; but at this moment her exhausted brain was under the 

 dominion of no complete thought. Scarce did she recollect there was a 

 God that there was such a person as Raymon, and she continued to walk, 

 still approaching the river, obeying the instinct of misfortune, and the mag- 

 netism of suffering. When she felt the piercing cold of the water, which 

 already bathed her feet, she awoke, as from a fit of somnambulism ; and, 

 looking around to discover where she was, she beheld Paris behind her, and 

 the Seine flying beside her feet, bearing upon its oily mass the white reflec- 

 tion of the houses, and the greyish blue of the sky, This continuous motion 

 of the river, and the immobility of the bank, became confounded in her con- 

 fused perceptions, and it appeared to her that the waters were still, and that 

 the land was careering along, She leant against a wall, and bent forward, 

 fascinated towards what she took to be a solid mass." 



This is as it should be ; a French novel, descriptive of the wild 

 play of overmastering passion, would be as incomplete without a 

 picture of suicide real or projected as an English novel would ba 

 without a duel. The interposition of Sir Ralph, who had been inde- 

 fatigable in his search after her, rescues her from her perilous situa- 

 tion. By him she is reconducted to her house; an explanation of 

 the causes of her absence partially satisfies her husband, and they set 

 sail for the Isle of Bourbon. Notwithstanding their repugnance to 

 such a step, Sir Ralph insists on accompanying them. He disposes 

 of his property, and settles with them in their villa, in the mountains 

 above St. Paul. Though he watched over Indiana with the most 

 tender and unremitting vigilance, in the excess of his delicate reserve 

 he continued to wear the appearance of coldness and egotism. Mean- 

 time the heart of Indiana was a prey to all the violence of disap- 

 pointed love. Raymon had sought her forgiveness before her depar- 

 ture, and her passion had returned with fresh violence. After 

 spending the sultry hours in her hamac 



" When, as evening advanced, the sea breeze began to bring with it the 

 perfume of the rice flowers, she plunged into the savannah, leaving Delmare 

 and Sir Ralph to inhale the aromatic infusion of the taham, and slowly to 



