"In a few days her maid assured me the life she led must destroy her;
that she would taste nothing but bread and water, never spoke, and
never slept.

"Alarmed by this account, I flew into her apartment; pride and
resentment gave way to pity and fondness, and I besought her to take
comfort. I spoke, however, to a statue, she replied not, nor seemed to
hear me. I then humbled myself to her as in the days of her innocence
and first power, supplicating her notice, entreating even her
commiseration! all was to no purpose; she neither received nor repulsed
me, and was alike inattentive to exhortation and to prayer.

"Whole hours did I spend at her feet, vowing never to arise till she
spoke to me,--all, all, in vain! she seemed deaf, mute, insensible; her
face unmoved, a settled despair fixed in her eyes,--those eyes that had
never looked at me but with dove-like softness and compliance!--She sat
constantly in one chair, she never changed her dress, no persuasions
could prevail with her to lie down, and at meals she just swallowed so
much dry bread as might save her from dying for want of food.

"What was the distraction of my soul, to find her bent upon this course
to her last hour!--quick came that hour, but never will it be
forgotten! rapidly it was gone, but eternally it will be remembered!

"When she felt herself expiring, she acknowledged she had made a vow,
upon entering the house, to live speechless and motionless, as a
pennance for her offences!

"I kept her loved corpse till my own senses failed me,--it was then
only torn from me,--and I have lost all recollection of three years of