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Strange Story, a — Volume 04 by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
page 44 of 71 (61%)
vainly struggles to quell. But darker its doom if longer retained to
earth, yoked to the mind that corrupts it, and enslaved to the senses
which thou bidst me restore to their tyrannous forces."

And Grayle bowed his head and covered his face with his hands in silence
and in trembling.

Then Sir Philip, seized with compassion, pleaded for him. "At least,
could not the soul have longer time on earth for repentance?" And while
Sir Philip was so pleading, Grayle fell prostrate in a swoon like that of
death. When he recovered, his head was leaning on Haroun's knee, and his
opening eyes fixed on the glittering phial which Haroun held, and from
which his lips had been moistened.

"Wondrous!" he murmured: "how I feel life flowing back to me. And that,
then, is the elixir! it is no fable!"

His hands stretched greedily as to seize the phial, and he cried
imploringly, "More, more!" Haroun replaced the vessel in the folds of his
robe, and answered,--

"I will not renew thy youth, but I will release thee from bodily
suffering: I will leave the mind and the soul free from the pangs of the
flesh, to reconcile, if yet possible, their long war. My skill may afford
thee months yet for repentance; Seek, in that interval, to atone for the
evil of sixty years; apply thy wealth where it may most compensate for
injury done, most relieve the indigent, and most aid the virtuous. Listen
to thy remorse; humble thyself in prayer."

Grayle departed, sighing heavily and muttering to himself. The next day
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