not, let the demons hear and rejoice! The choice is with us; let us will
it, and our habitation becomes a paradise. For the will of man is
omnipotent, blunting the arrows of death, soothing the bed of disease, and
wiping away the tears of agony. And what is each human being worth, if he
do not put forth his strength to aid his fellow-creatures? My soul is a
fading spark, my nature frail as a spent wave; but I dedicate all of
intellect and strength that remains to me, to that one work, and take upon
me the task, as far as I am able, of bestowing blessings on my
fellow-men!"

His voice trembled, his eyes were cast up, his hands clasped, and his
fragile person was bent, as it were, with excess of emotion. The spirit of
life seemed to linger in his form, as a dying flame on an altar flickers on
the embers of an accepted sacrifice.




CHAPTER V.


WHEN we arrived at Windsor, I found that Raymond and Perdita had departed
for the continent. I took possession of my sister's cottage, and blessed
myself that I lived within view of Windsor Castle. It was a curious fact,
that at this period, when by the marriage of Perdita I was allied to one of
the richest individuals in England, and was bound by the most intimate
friendship to its chiefest noble, I experienced the greatest excess of
poverty that I had ever known. My knowledge of the worldly principles of
Lord Raymond, would have ever prevented me from applying to him, however
deep my distress might have been. It was in vain that I repeated to myself