I
have seen fairer forms,--I have listened to softer voices,--I might have
met gentler hearts,--but the first, the indelible image, is written on
mine, and its characters will never be effaced till that heart is a clod
of the valley. I loved you not for comeliness,--I loved you not for gay
deportment, or fond language, or all that is said to be lovely in the
eye of woman,--I loved you because you were my _first_,--the sole
connecting link between the human world and my heart,--the being who
brought me acquainted with that wondrous instrument that lay unknown and
untouched within and me, whose chords, as long as they vibrate, will
disdain to obey any touch but that of their first mover--because your
image is mixed in my imagination with all the glories of nature--because
your voice, when I heard it first, was something in accordance with the
murmur of the ocean, and the music of the stars. And still its tones
recal the unimaginable blessedness of those scenes where first I heard
it,--and still I listen to it like an exile who hears the music of his
native country in a land that is very far off,--because nature and
passion, memory and hope, alike cling round your image; and amid the
light of my former existence, and the gloom of my present, there is but
one form that retains its reality and its power through light and shade. I am like one who has traversed many climates, and looks but to one sun
as the light of all, whether bright or obscure. I have loved once--and
for ever!” Then, trembling at the words she uttered, she added, with
that sweet mixture of maiden pride and purity that redeems while it
pledges the hostage of the heart, “The feelings I have entrusted you
with may be abused, but never alienated.”--“And these are your _real_
feelings?” said Melmoth, pausing long, and moving his frame like one
agitated by deep and uneasy thoughts. “Real!” repeated Isidora, with
some transient glow on her cheek--“real! Can I utter any thing but what
is real? Can I so soon forget my existence?” Melmoth looked up once more
as she spoke--“If such is your resolution,--if such be your feelings
indeed,”---- “And they are!--they are!” exclaimed Isidora, her tears
bursting through the slender fingers, which, after extending towards
him, she clasped over her burning eyes. “Then look to the alternative
that awaits you!” said Melmoth slowly, bringing out the words with
difficulty, and, as it appeared, with some feeling for his victim; “a
union with the man you cannot love,--or the perpetual hostility, the
wearying, wasting, almost annihilating persecution of your family! Think
of days that”---- “Oh let me not think!” cried Isidora, wringing her
white and slender hands; “tell me--tell me what may be done to escape
them!”--“Now, in good troth,” answered Melmoth, knitting his brows with
a most cogitative wrinkle, while it was impossible to discover whether
his predominant expression was that of irony or profound and sincere
feeling--“I know not what resource you have unless you wed me.”--“Wed
you!” cried Isidora, retreating from the window--“Wed you!” and she
clasped her hands over her pale forehead;--and at this moment, when the
hope of her heart, the thread on which her existence was suspended, was
within her reach, she trembled to touch it. “Wed you!--but how is that
possible?”--“All things are possible to those who love,” said Melmoth,
with his sardonic smile, which was hid by the shades of the night. “And
you will wed me, then, by the rites of the church of which I am a
member?”--“Aye! or of any other!”--“Oh speak not so wildly!--say not
_aye_ in that horrible voice! Will you wed me as a Christian maiden
should be wed?--Will you love me as a Christian wife should be loved? My
former existence was like a dream,--but now I am awake. If I unite my
destiny to yours,--if I abandon my family, my country, my”---- “If you
do, how will you be the loser?--your family harasses and confines
you--your country would shout to see you at the stake, for you have some
heretical feelings about you, Isidora. And for the rest”---- “God!” said
the poor victim, clasping her hands, and looking upwards, “God, aid me
in this extremity!”--“If I am to wait here only as a witness to your
devotions,” said Melmoth with sullen asperity, “my stay will not be
long.”--“You cannot leave me, then, to struggle with fear and perplexity
alone! How is it possible for me to escape, even if”---- “By whatever
means I possess of entering this place and retiring unobserved,--by the
same you may effect your escape. If you have resolution, the effort will
cost you little,--if love,--nothing. Speak, shall I be here at this hour
to-morrow night, to conduct you to liberty and”---- Safety he would have
added, but his voice faultered. “_To-morrow night_,” said Isidora, after
a long pause, and in accents almost inarticulate. She closed the
casement as she spoke, and Melmoth slowly departed. END OF THIRD VOLUME. Transcriber’s Note:

    The following is a list of corrections made to the original. The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. CHILDREN. CHILDREN.”

 say to heaven, We have a sun though your’s is set;--the solemn and
 say to heaven, We have a sun though yours is set;--the solemn and

 the last garment on your person, and the last denier in your purse. the last garment on your person, and the last denier in your purse.”

 matted coil of adders, had there first recieved the bloody homage of the
 matted coil of adders, had there first received the bloody homage of the

 For many a night these canoes might be seen glancing past each other
 “For many a night these canoes might be seen glancing past each other

 regularity of these phœnomena, in the climate she inhabited, divested
 regularity of these phænomena, in the climate she inhabited, divested

 But to this question he could obtain no satisfactory answer; and it was
 “But to this question he could obtain no satisfactory answer; and it was

 smile at her as she bounded after him, breathles and glowing with newly
 smile at her as she bounded after him, breathless and glowing with newly

 torn away.”
 torn away. surmounted by a trident.--that is the temple of Maha-deva, a goddess who
 surmounted by a trident,--that is the temple of Maha-deva, a goddess who

 made such an an artless transition from profound and meditative grief to
 made such an artless transition from profound and meditative grief to

 Her glowing features, as she turned them toward him, with an expression
 “Her glowing features, as she turned them toward him, with an expression

 CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XVII. important subject(16), whether their iackets should be red or white--or
 important subject(16), whether their jackets should be red or white--or

 CHAPTER XVII. CHAPTER XVIII.