Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers — Volume 1 by Thomas De Quincey
page 85 of 234 (36%)
page 85 of 234 (36%)
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my encircling arms; but not again in that peace which crowned thy
innocence in those days, and should have crowned it now. Through the whole of our flying journey, in some circumstances at its outset strikingly recalling to me that blessed one which followed our marriage, Agnes slept away unconscious of our movements. She slept through all that day and the following night; and I watched over her with as much jealousy of all that might disturb her, as a mother watches over her new-born baby; for I hoped, I fancied, that a long-- long rest, a rest, a halcyon calm, a deep, deep Sabbath of security, might prove healing and medicinal. I thought wrong; her breathing became more disturbed, and sleep was now haunted by dreams; all of us, indeed, were agitated by dreams; the past pursued me, and the present, for high rewards had been advertised by Government to those who traced us; and though for the moment we were secure, because we never went abroad, and could not have been naturally sought in such a neighborhood, still that very circumstance would eventually operate against us. At length, every night I dreamed of our insecurity under a thousand forms; but more often by far my dreams turned upon our wrongs; wrath moved me rather than fear. Every night, for the greater part, I lay painfully and elaborately involved, by deep sense of wrong, '--in long orations, which I pleaded Before unjust tribunals.' [Footnote: From a MS. poem of a great living Poet.] And for poor Agnes, her also did the remembrance of mighty wrongs occupy through vast worlds of sleep in the same way--though colored by that tenderness which belonged to her gentler nature. One dream in particular--a dream of sublime circumstances--she repeated to me so movingly, with a pathos so thrilling, that by some profound sympathy it |
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