With this resolution I traversed the northern highlands and fixed on one of the remotest of the Orkneys as the scene of my labours.It was a place fitted for such a work, being hardly more than a rock whose high sides were continually beaten upon by the waves.The soil was barren, scarcely affording pasture for a few miserable cows,and oatmeal for its inhabitants, which consisted of five persons,whose gaunt and scraggy limbs gave tokens of their miserable fare. Vegetables and bread,when they indulged in such luxuries, and even fresh water, was to be procured from the mainland, which was about five miles distant.
On the whole island there were but three miserable huts, and one of these was vacant when I arrived.This I hired. It contained but two rooms,and these exhibited all the squalidness of the most miserable penury. The thatch had fallen in,the walls were unplastered, and the door was off its hinges. I ordered it to be repaired,bought some furniture, and took possession,an incident which would doubtless have occasioned some surprise had not all the senses of the cottagers been benumbed by want and squalid poverty.As it was, I lived ungazed at and unmolested,hardly thanked for the pittance of food and clothes which I gave,so much does suffering blunt even the coarsest sensations of men.
In this retreat I devoted the morning to labour; but in the evening, when the weather permitted,I walked on the stony beach of the sea to listen to the waves as they roared and dashed at my feet.It was a monotonous yet ever-changing scene. I thought of Switzerland;it was far different from this desolate and appalling landscape. Its hills are covered with vines,and its cottages are scattered thickly in the plains. Its fair lakes reflect a blue and gentle sky,and when troubled by the winds, their tumult is but as the play of a lively infant when compared to the roarings of the giant ocean.
In this manner I distributed my occupations when I first arrived, but as I proceeded in my labour,it became every day more horrible and irksome to me.Sometimes I could not prevail on myself to enter my laboratory for several days,and at other times I toiled day and night in order to complete my work. It was, indeed,a filthy process in which I was engaged. During my first experiment,a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment;my mind was intently fixed on the consummation of my labour,and my eyes were shut to the horror of my proceedings. But now I went to it in cold blood,and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands.
Thus situated, employed in the most detestable occupation,immersed in a solitude where nothing could for an instant call my attention from the actual scene in which I was engaged,my spirits became unequal; I grew restless and nervous.Every moment I feared to meet my persecutor. Sometimes I sat with my eyes fixed on the ground,fearing to raise them lest they should encounter the object which I so much dreaded to behold.I feared to wander from the sight of my fellow creatures lest when alone he should come to claim his companion.
In the mean time I worked on, and my labour was already considerably advanced.I looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager hope,which I dared not trust myself to question but which was intermixed with obscure forebodings of evil that made my heart sicken in my bosom.
Chapter 20
I sat one evening in my laboratory; the sun had set, and the moon was just rising from the sea;I had not sufficient light for my employment, and I remained idle,in a pause of consideration of whether I should leave my labour for the night or hasten its conclusion by an unremitting attention to it.As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me which led me to consider the effects of what I was now doing.Three years before, I was engaged in the same manner and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart and filled it for ever with the bitterest remorse. I was now about to form another being of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness. He had sworn to quit the neighbourhood of man and hide himself in deserts, but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation. They might even hate each other; the creature who already lived loathed his own deformity, and might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form?She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him,and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species.
Even if they were to leave Europe and inhabit the deserts of the new world,yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the dæmon thirsted would be children,and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations?I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created;I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time,the wickedness of my promise burst upon me;I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest,whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps,of the existence of the whole human race.
I trembled and my heart failed within me, when, on looking up,I saw by the light of the moon the dæmon at the casement.A ghastly grin wrinkled his lips as he gazed on me,where I sat fulfilling the task which he had allotted to me. Yes, he had followed me in my travels;he had loitered in forests, hid himself in caves, or taken refuge in wide and desert heaths;and he now came to mark my progress and claim the fulfilment of my promise.
As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery.I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him,and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged.The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness,and with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew.
I left the room, and locking the door, made a solemn vow in my own heart never to resume my labours;and then, with trembling steps, I sought my own apartment. I was alone;none were near me to dissipate the gloom and relieve me from the sickening oppression of the most terrible reveries.
Several hours passed, and I remained near my window gazing on the sea; it was almost motionless,for the winds were hushed, and all nature reposed under the eye of the quiet moon.A few fishing vessels alone specked the water,and now and then the gentle breeze wafted the sound of voices as the fishermen called to one another.I felt the silence, although I was hardly conscious of its extreme profundity,until my ear was suddenly arrested by the paddling of oars near the shore, and a person landed close to my house.
In a few minutes after, I heard the creaking of my door,as if some one endeavoured to open it softly. I trembled from head to foot;I felt a presentiment of who it was and wished to rouse one of the peasants who dwelt in a cottage not far from mine;but I was overcome by the sensation of helplessness, so often felt in frightful dreams,when you in vain endeavour to fly from an impending danger, and was rooted to the spot.
Presently I heard the sound of footsteps along the passage; the door opened,and the wretch whom I dreaded appeared. Shutting the door,he approached me and said in a smothered voice,
“You have destroyed the work which you began; what is it that you intend?Do you dare to break your promise?I have endured toil and misery; I left Switzerland with you; I crept along the shores of the Rhine,among its willow islands and over the summits of its hills.I have dwelt many months in the heaths of England and among the deserts of Scotland.I have endured incalculable fatigue, and cold, and hunger; do you dare destroy my hopes?”
“Begone!I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness. ”
“Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension.Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable,but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!”
“The hour of my irresolution is past, and the period of your power is arrived.Your threats cannot move me to do an act of wickedness;but they confirm me in a determination of not creating you a companion in vice. Shall I,in cool blood, set loose upon the earth a dæmon whose delight is in death and wretchedness?Begone!I am firm, and your words will only exasperate my rage.”
The monster saw my determination in my face and gnashed his teeth in the impotence of anger.“Shall each man,” cried he, “find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man!You may hate, but beware!Your hours will pass in dread and misery,and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness for ever.Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness?You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains—revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food!I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery.Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake,that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict.”
“Devil, cease; and do not poison the air with these sounds of malice.I have declared my resolution to you, and I am no coward to bend beneath words. Leave me; I am inexorable.”
“It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night.”
I started forward and exclaimed, “Villain!Before you sign my death-warrant, be sure that you are yourself safe.”
I would have seized him, but he eluded me and quitted the house with precipitation.In a few moments I saw him in his boat,which shot across the waters with an arrowy swiftness and was soon lost amidst the waves.
All was again silent, but his words rang in my ears.I burned with rage to pursue the murderer of my peace and precipitate him into the ocean.I walked up and down my room hastily and perturbed,while my imagination conjured up a thousand images to torment and sting me.Why had I not followed him and closed with him in mortal strife?But I had suffered him to depart, and he had directed his course towards the mainland.I shuddered to think who might be the next victim sacrificed to his insatiate revenge.And then I thought again of his words—“_I will be with you on your wedding-night._” That, then,was the period fixed for the fulfilment of my destiny.In that hour I should die and at once satisfy and extinguish his malice.The prospect did not move me to fear; yet when I thought of my beloved Elizabeth,of her tears and endless sorrow, when she should find her lover so barbarously snatched from her,tears, the first I had shed for many months, streamed from my eyes,and I resolved not to fall before my enemy without a bitter struggle.
The night passed away, and the sun rose from the ocean; my feelings became calmer,if it may be called calmness when the violence of rage sinks into the depths of despair.I left the house, the horrid scene of the last night’s contention,and walked on the beach of the sea, which I almost regarded as an insuperable barrier between me and my fellow creatures;nay, a wish that such should prove the fact stole across me.I desired that I might pass my life on that barren rock, wearily, it is true,but uninterrupted by any sudden shock of misery. If I returned,it was to be sacrificed or to see those whom I most loved die under the grasp of a dæmon whom I had myself created.
I walked about the isle like a restless spectre,separated from all it loved and miserable in the separation. When it became noon,and the sun rose higher, I lay down on the grass and was overpowered by a deep sleep.I had been awake the whole of the preceding night, my nerves were agitated,and my eyes inflamed by watching and misery. The sleep into which I now sank refreshed me;and when I awoke, I again felt as if I belonged to a race of human beings like myself,and I began to reflect upon what had passed with greater composure;yet still the words of the fiend rang in my ears like a death-knell; they appeared like a dream,yet distinct and oppressive as a reality.
The sun had far descended, and I still sat on the shore, satisfying my appetite,which had become ravenous, with an oaten cake, when I saw a fishing-boat land close to me,and one of the men brought me a packet; it contained letters from Geneva,and one from Clerval entreating me to join him.He said that he was wearing away his time fruitlessly where he was,that letters from the friends he had formed in London desired his return to complete the negotiation they had entered into for his Indian enterprise.He could not any longer delay his departure; but as his journey to London might be followed,even sooner than he now conjectured, by his longer voyage,he entreated me to bestow as much of my society on him as I could spare. He besought me, therefore,to leave my solitary isle and to meet him at Perth, that we might proceed southwards together.This letter in a degree recalled me to life,and I determined to quit my island at the expiration of two days.
Yet, before I departed, there was a task to perform, on which I shuddered to reflect;I must pack up my chemical instruments,and for that purpose I must enter the room which had been the scene of my odious work,and I must handle those utensils the sight of which was sickening to me. The next morning,at daybreak, I summoned sufficient courage and unlocked the door of my laboratory.The remains of the half-finished creature, whom I had destroyed, lay scattered on the floor,and I almost felt as if I had mangled the living flesh of a human being.I paused to collect myself and then entered the chamber.With trembling hand I conveyed the instruments out of the room,but I reflected that I ought not to leave the relics of my work to excite the horror and suspicion of the peasants;and I accordingly put them into a basket, with a great quantity of stones, and laying them up,determined to throw them into the sea that very night; and in the meantime I sat upon the beach,employed in cleaning and arranging my chemical apparatus.
Nothing could be more complete than the alteration that had taken place in my feelings since the night of the appearance of the dæmon.I had before regarded my promise with a gloomy despair as a thing that, with whatever consequences,must be fulfilled; but I now felt as if a film had been taken from before my eyes and that I for the first time saw clearly.The idea of renewing my labours did not for one instant occur to me;the threat I had heard weighed on my thoughts,but I did not reflect that a voluntary act of mine could avert it.I had resolved in my own mind that to create another like the fiend I had first made would be an act of the basest and most atrocious selfishness,and I banished from my mind every thought that could lead to a different conclusion.
Between two and three in the morning the moon rose; and I then,putting my basket aboard a little skiff, sailed out about four miles from the shore.The scene was perfectly solitary; a few boats were returning towards land,but I sailed away from them. I felt as if I was about the commission of a dreadful crime and avoided with shuddering anxiety any encounter with my fellow creatures. At one time the moon, which had before been clear, was suddenly overspread by a thick cloud, and I took advantage of the moment of darkness and cast my basket into the sea; I listened to the gurgling sound as it sank and then sailed away from the spot. The sky became clouded, but the air was pure, although chilled by the northeast breeze that was then rising. But it refreshed me and filled me with such agreeable sensations that I resolved to prolong my stay on the water, and fixing the rudder in a direct position, stretched myself at the bottom of the boat. Clouds hid the moon, everything was obscure, and I heard only the sound of the boat as its keel cut through the waves; the murmur lulled me, and in a short time I slept soundly.
I do not know how long I remained in this situation,but when I awoke I found that the sun had already mounted considerably. The wind was high,and the waves continually threatened the safety of my little skiff.I found that the wind was northeast and must have driven me far from the coast from which I had embarked.I endeavoured to change my course but quickly found that if I again made the attempt the boat would be instantly filled with water.Thus situated, my only resource was to drive before the wind.I confess that I felt a few sensations of terror.I had no compass with me and was so slenderly acquainted with the geography of this part of the world that the sun was of little benefit to me.I might be driven into the wide Atlantic and feel all the tortures of starvation or be swallowed up in the immeasurable waters that roared and buffeted around me. I had already been out many hours and felt the torment of a burning thirst, a prelude to my other sufferings. I looked on the heavens, which were covered by clouds that flew before the wind, only to be replaced by others; I looked upon the sea; it was to be my grave. “Fiend,” I exclaimed, “your task is already fulfilled!” I thought of Elizabeth, of my father, and of Clerval—all left behind,on whom the monster might satisfy his sanguinary and merciless passions.This idea plunged me into a reverie so despairing and frightful that even now,when the scene is on the point of closing before me for ever, I shudder to reflect on it.
Some hours passed thus; but by degrees, as the sun declined towards the horizon,the wind died away into a gentle breeze and the sea became free from breakers.But these gave place to a heavy swell; I felt sick and hardly able to hold the rudder,when suddenly I saw a line of high land towards the south.
Almost spent, as I was, by fatigue and the dreadful suspense I endured for several hours,this sudden certainty of life rushed like a flood of warm joy to my heart, and tears gushed from my eyes.
How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!I constructed another sail with a part of my dress and eagerly steered my course towards the land.It had a wild and rocky appearance, but as I approached nearer I easily perceived the traces of cultivation.I saw vessels near the shore and found myself suddenly transported back to the neighbourhood of civilised man.I carefully traced the windings of the land and hailed a steeple which I at length saw issuing from behind a small promontory.As I was in a state of extreme debility, I resolved to sail directly towards the town,as a place where I could most easily procure nourishment. Fortunately I had money with me.As I turned the promontory I perceived a small neat town and a good harbour, which I entered,my heart bounding with joy at my unexpected escape.
As I was occupied in fixing the boat and arranging the sails,several people crowded towards the spot. They seemed much surprised at my appearance,but instead of offering me any assistance,whispered together with gestures that at any other time might have produced in me a slight sensation of alarm.As it was, I merely remarked that they spoke English,and I therefore addressed them in that language. “My good friends,” said I,“will you be so kind as to tell me the name of this town and inform me where I am?”
“You will know that soon enough,” replied a man with a hoarse voice.“Maybe you are come to a place that will not prove much to your taste,but you will not be consulted as to your quarters, I promise you.”
I was exceedingly surprised on receiving so rude an answer from a stranger,and I was also disconcerted on perceiving the frowning and angry countenances of his companions. “Why do you answer me so roughly?” I replied. “Surely it is not the custom of Englishmen to receive strangers so inhospitably.”
“I do not know,” said the man, “what the custom of the English may be,but it is the custom of the Irish to hate villains.”
While this strange dialogue continued, I perceived the crowd rapidly increase.Their faces expressed a mixture of curiosity and anger,which annoyed and in some degree alarmed me. I inquired the way to the inn, but no one replied.I then moved forward, and a murmuring sound arose from the crowd as they followed and surrounded me,when an ill-looking man approaching tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Come, sir,you must follow me to Mr. Kirwin’s to give an account of yourself.”
“Who is Mr. Kirwin?Why am I to give an account of myself?Is not this a free country?”
“Ay, sir, free enough for honest folks. Mr. Kirwin is a magistrate,and you are to give an account of the death of a gentleman who was found murdered here last night.”
This answer startled me, but I presently recovered myself. I was innocent;that could easily be proved; accordingly I followed my conductor in silence and was led to one of the best houses in the town.I was ready to sink from fatigue and hunger, but being surrounded by a crowd,I thought it politic to rouse all my strength,that no physical debility might be construed into apprehension or conscious guilt.Little did I then expect the calamity that was in a few moments to overwhelm me and extinguish in horror and despair all fear of ignominy or death.
I must pause here, for it requires all my fortitude to recall the memory of the frightful events which I am about to relate, in proper detail, to my recollection.
Chapter 21
I was soon introduced into the presence of the magistrate,an old benevolent man with calm and mild manners. He looked upon me, however,with some degree of severity, and then, turning towards my conductors,he asked who appeared as witnesses on this occasion.
About half a dozen men came forward; and, one being selected by the magistrate,he deposed that he had been out fishing the night before with his son and brother-in-law,Daniel Nugent, when, about ten o’clock, they observed a strong northerly blast rising,and they accordingly put in for port. It was a very dark night, as the moon had not yet risen;they did not land at the harbour, but, as they had been accustomed,at a creek about two miles below. He walked on first, carrying a part of the fishing tackle,and his companions followed him at some distance. As he was proceeding along the sands,he struck his foot against something and fell at his length on the ground.His companions came up to assist him, and by the light of their lantern they found that he had fallen on the body of a man,who was to all appearance dead. Their first supposition was that it was the corpse of some person who had been drowned and was thrown on shore by the waves,but on examination they found that the clothes were not wet and even that the body was not then cold.They instantly carried it to the cottage of an old woman near the spot and endeavoured,but in vain, to restore it to life. It appeared to be a handsome young man,about five and twenty years of age. He had apparently been strangled,for there was no sign of any violence except the black mark of fingers on his neck.
The first part of this deposition did not in the least interest me,but when the mark of the fingers was mentioned I remembered the murder of my brother and felt myself extremely agitated;my limbs trembled, and a mist came over my eyes, which obliged me to lean on a chair for support.The magistrate observed me with a keen eye and of course drew an unfavourable augury from my manner.
The son confirmed his father’s account, but when Daniel Nugent was called he swore positively that just before the fall of his companion,he saw a boat, with a single man in it, at a short distance from the shore;and as far as he could judge by the light of a few stars,it was the same boat in which I had just landed.
A woman deposed that she lived near the beach and was standing at the door of her cottage,waiting for the return of the fishermen,about an hour before she heard of the discovery of the body,when she saw a boat with only one man in it push off from that part of the shore where the corpse was afterwards found.
Another woman confirmed the account of the fishermen having brought the body into her house;it was not cold. They put it into a bed and rubbed it,and Daniel went to the town for an apothecary, but life was quite gone.
Several other men were examined concerning my landing, and they agreed that,with the strong north wind that had arisen during the night,it was very probable that I had beaten about for many hours and had been obliged to return nearly to the same spot from which I had departed.Besides, they observed that it appeared that I had brought the body from another place,and it was likely that as I did not appear to know the shore,I might have put into the harbour ignorant of the distance of the town of —— from the place where I had deposited the corpse.
Mr. Kirwin, on hearing this evidence, desired that I should be taken into the room where the body lay for interment,that it might be observed what effect the sight of it would produce upon me.This idea was probably suggested by the extreme agitation I had exhibited when the mode of the murder had been described.I was accordingly conducted, by the magistrate and several other persons, to the inn.I could not help being struck by the strange coincidences that had taken place during this eventful night;but, knowing that I had been conversing with several persons in the island I had inhabited about the time that the body had been found,I was perfectly tranquil as to the consequences of the affair.
I entered the room where the corpse lay and was led up to the coffin.How can I describe my sensations on beholding it?I feel yet parched with horror, nor can I reflect on that terrible moment without shuddering and agony.The examination, the presence of the magistrate and witnesses,passed like a dream from my memory when I saw the lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched before me.I gasped for breath, and throwing myself on the body, I exclaimed,“Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life?Two I have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny; but you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor—”
The human frame could no longer support the agonies that I endured,and I was carried out of the room in strong convulsions.
A fever succeeded to this. I lay for two months on the point of death; my ravings,as I afterwards heard, were frightful; I called myself the murderer of William, of Justine,and of Clerval. Sometimes I entreated my attendants to assist me in the destruction of the fiend by whom I was tormented;and at others I felt the fingers of the monster already grasping my neck,and screamed aloud with agony and terror. Fortunately, as I spoke my native language, Mr.Kirwin alone understood me; but my gestures and bitter cries were sufficient to affright the other witnesses.
Why did I not die?More miserable than man ever was before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest?Death snatches away many blooming children, the only hopes of their doting parents;how many brides and youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health and hope,and the next a prey for worms and the decay of the tomb!Of what materials was I made that I could thus resist so many shocks, which,like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed the torture?
But I was doomed to live and in two months found myself as awaking from a dream, in a prison,stretched on a wretched bed, surrounded by gaolers, turnkeys, bolts,and all the miserable apparatus of a dungeon. It was morning, I remember,when I thus awoke to understanding; I had forgotten the particulars of what had happened and only felt as if some great misfortune had suddenly overwhelmed me;but when I looked around and saw the barred windows and the squalidness of the room in which I was,all flashed across my memory and I groaned bitterly.
This sound disturbed an old woman who was sleeping in a chair beside me. She was a hired nurse,the wife of one of the turnkeys, and her countenance expressed all those bad qualities which often characterise that class.The lines of her face were hard and rude,like that of persons accustomed to see without sympathising in sights of misery.Her tone expressed her entire indifference; she addressed me in English,and the voice struck me as one that I had heard during my sufferings.
“Are you better now, sir?” said she.
I replied in the same language, with a feeble voice, “I believe I am; but if it be all true,if indeed I did not dream, I am sorry that I am still alive to feel this misery and horror.”