My punishment is fixed,--it is worse than a death of shame; it is a life without hope! Every moment I feel, and shall feel to the last, the pressure of a chain that may never be broken or loosened! And yet, fool that I am! I cannot leave this country without seeing her again, without telling her that I have really looked my last.

But have I not twice told her that?
Strange fatality! But twice have I spoken to her of love, and each time it was to tear myself from her at the moment of my confession.

And even now something that I have no power to resist compels me to the same idle and weak indulgence.

Does destiny urge me?
Ay, perhaps to my destruction! Every hour a thousand deaths encompass me.

I have now obtained all for which I seemed to linger.