Frankenstein

you, who centre all their hopes in you. Have we lost the power of
rendering you happy? Ah! while we love--while we are true to each other,
here in this land of peace and beauty, your native country, we may reap
every tranquil blessing,--what can disturb our peace?"

And could not such words from her whom I fondly prized before every
other gift of fortune, suffice to chase away the fiend that lurked in my
heart? Even as she spoke I drew near to her, as if in terror; lest at
that very moment the destroyer had been near to rob me of her.

Thus not the tenderness of friendship, nor the beauty of earth, nor of
heaven, could redeem my soul from woe: the very accents of love were
ineffectual. I was encompassed by a cloud which no beneficial influence
could penetrate. The wounded deer dragging its fainting limbs to some
untrodden brake, there to gaze upon the arrow which had pierced it, and
to die--was but a type of me.

Sometimes I could cope with the sullen despair that overwhelmed me: but
sometimes the whirlwind passions of my soul drove me to seek, by bodily
exercise and by change of place, some relief from my intolerable
sensations. It was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my