FRANKENSTEIN
PART 12
Chapter 23
It was
eight o'clock when we landed; we walked for a short time on the shore, enjoying
the transitory light, and then retired to the inn and contemplated the lovely
scene of waters, woods, and mountains, obscured in darkness, yet still
displaying their black outlines.
The wind,
which had fallen in the south, now rose with great violence in the west. The
moon had reached her summit in the heavens and was beginning to descend; the
clouds swept across it swifter than the flight of the vulture and dimmed her rays,
while the lake reflected the scene of the busy heavens, rendered still busier
by the restless waves that were beginning to rise. Suddenly a heavy storm of
rain descended.
I had been
calm during the day, but so soon as night obscured the shapes of objects, a
thousand fears arose in my mind. I was anxious and watchful, while my right
hand grasped a pistol which was hidden in my bosom; every sound terrified me,
but I resolved that I would sell my life dearly and not shrink from the
conflict until my own life or that of my adversary was extinguished. Elizabeth
observed my agitation for some time in timid and fearful silence, but there was
something in my glance which communicated terror to her, and trembling, she
asked, "What is it that agitates you, my dear Victor? What is it you
fear?"
"Oh!
Peace, peace, my love," replied I; "this night, and all will be safe;
but this night is dreadful, very dreadful."
I passed
an hour in this state of mind, when suddenly I reflected how fearful the combat
which I momentarily expected would be to my wife, and I earnestly entreated her
to retire, resolving not to join her until I had obtained some knowledge as to
the situation of my enemy.
She left
me, and I continued some time walking up and down the passages of the house and
inspecting every corner that might afford a retreat to my adversary. But I
discovered no trace of him and was beginning to conjecture that some fortunate
chance had intervened to prevent the execution of his menaces when suddenly I
heard a shrill and dreadful scream. It came from the room into which Elizabeth
had retired. As I heard it, the whole truth rushed into my mind, my arms
dropped, the motion of every muscle and fibre was suspended; I could feel the
blood trickling in my veins and tingling in the extremities of my limbs. This
state lasted but for an instant; the scream was repeated, and I rushed into the
room. Great God! Why did I not then expire! Why am I here to relate the
destruction of the best hope and the purest creature on earth? She was there,
lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down and her
pale and distorted features half covered by her hair. Everywhere I turn I see
the same figure—her bloodless arms and relaxed form flung by the murderer on
its bridal bier. Could I behold this and live? Alas! Life is obstinate and
clings closest where it is most hated. For a moment only did I lose
recollection; I fell senseless on the ground.
When I
recovered I found myself surrounded by the people of the inn; their countenances
expressed a breathless terror, but the horror of others appeared only as a
mockery, a shadow of the feelings that oppressed me. I escaped from them to the
room where lay the body of Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so
dear, so worthy. She had been moved from the posture in which I had first
beheld her, and now, as she lay, her head upon her arm and a handkerchief
thrown across her face and neck, I might have supposed her asleep. I rushed
towards her and embraced her with ardour, but the deadly languor and coldness
of the limbs told me that what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the
Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished. The murderous mark of the fiend's
grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips. While
I still hung over her in the agony of despair, I happened to look up. The
windows of the room had before been darkened, and I felt a kind of panic on
seeing the pale yellow light of the moon illuminate the chamber. The shutters
had been thrown back, and with a sensation of horror not to be described, I saw
at the open window a figure the most hideous and abhorred. A grin was on the
face of the monster; he seemed to jeer, as with his fiendish finger he pointed
towards the corpse of my wife. I rushed towards the window, and drawing a
pistol from my bosom, fired; but he eluded me, leaped from his station, and
running with the swiftness of lightning, plunged into the lake.
The report
of the pistol brought a crowd into the room. I pointed to the spot where he had
disappeared, and we followed the track with boats; nets were cast, but in vain.
After passing several hours, we returned hopeless, most of my companions
believing it to have been a form conjured up by my fancy. After having landed,
they proceeded to search the country, parties going in different directions
among the woods and vines.
I
attempted to accompany them and proceeded a short distance from the house, but
my head whirled round, my steps were like those of a drunken man, I fell at
last in a state of utter exhaustion; a film covered my eyes, and my skin was
parched with the heat of fever. In this state I was carried back and placed on
a bed, hardly conscious of what had happened; my eyes wandered round the room
as if to seek something that I had lost.
After an
interval I arose, and as if by instinct, crawled into the room where the corpse
of my beloved lay. There were women weeping around; I hung over it and joined
my sad tears to theirs; all this time no distinct idea presented itself to my
mind, but my thoughts rambled to various subjects, reflecting confusedly on my
misfortunes and their cause. I was bewildered, in a cloud of wonder and horror.
The death of William, the execution of Justine, the murder of Clerval, and
lastly of my wife; even at that moment I knew not that my only remaining
friends were safe from the malignity of the fiend; my father even now might be
writhing under his grasp, and Ernest might be dead at his feet. This idea made
me shudder and recalled me to action. I started up and resolved to return to
Geneva with all possible speed.
There were
no horses to be procured, and I must return by the lake; but the wind was
unfavourable, and the rain fell in torrents. However, it was hardly morning,
and I might reasonably hope to arrive by night. I hired men to row and took an
oar myself, for I had always experienced relief from mental torment in bodily
exercise. But the overflowing misery I now felt, and the excess of agitation
that I endured rendered me incapable of any exertion. I threw down the oar, and
leaning my head upon my hands, gave way to every gloomy idea that arose. If I
looked up, I saw scenes which were familiar to me in my happier time and which
I had contemplated but the day before in the company of her who was now but a shadow
and a recollection. Tears streamed from my eyes. The rain had ceased for a
moment, and I saw the fish play in the waters as they had done a few hours
before; they had then been observed by Elizabeth. Nothing is so painful to the
human mind as a great and sudden change. The sun might shine or the clouds
might lower, but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before. A
fiend had snatched from me every hope of future happiness; no creature had ever
been so miserable as I was; so frightful an event is single in the history of
man. But why should I dwell upon the incidents that followed this last
overwhelming event? Mine has been a tale of horrors; I have reached their acme,
and what I must now relate can but be tedious to you. Know that, one by one, my
friends were snatched away; I was left desolate. My own strength is exhausted,
and I must tell, in a few words, what remains of my hideous narration. I
arrived at Geneva. My father and Ernest yet lived, but the former sunk under
the tidings that I bore. I see him now, excellent and venerable old man! His
eyes wandered in vacancy, for they had lost their charm and their delight—his
Elizabeth, his more than daughter, whom he doted on with all that affection
which a man feels, who in the decline of life, having few affections, clings
more earnestly to those that remain. Cursed, cursed be the fiend that brought
misery on his grey hairs and doomed him to waste in wretchedness! He could not
live under the horrors that were accumulated around him; the springs of
existence suddenly gave way; he was unable to rise from his bed, and in a few
days he died in my arms.
What then
became of me? I know not; I lost sensation, and chains and darkness were the
only objects that pressed upon me. Sometimes, indeed, I dreamt that I wandered
in flowery meadows and pleasant vales with the friends of my youth, but I awoke
and found myself in a dungeon. Melancholy followed, but by degrees I gained a
clear conception of my miseries and situation and was then released from my prison.
For they had called me mad, and during many months, as I understood, a solitary
cell had been my habitation.
Liberty,
however, had been a useless gift to me, had I not, as I awakened to reason, at
the same time awakened to revenge. As the memory of past misfortunes pressed
upon me, I began to reflect on their cause—the monster whom I had created, the
miserable daemon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction. I
was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently
prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal
revenge on his cursed head.
Nor did my
hate long confine itself to useless wishes; I began to reflect on the best
means of securing him; and for this purpose, about a month after my release, I
repaired to a criminal judge in the town and told him that I had an accusation
to make, that I knew the destroyer of my family, and that I required him to
exert his whole authority for the apprehension of the murderer. The magistrate
listened to me with attention and kindness.
"Be
assured, sir," said he, "no pains or exertions on my part shall be
spared to discover the villain."
"I
thank you," replied I; "listen, therefore, to the deposition that I
have to make. It is indeed a tale so strange that I should fear you would not
credit it were there not something in truth which, however wonderful, forces
conviction. The story is too connected to be mistaken for a dream, and I have
no motive for falsehood." My manner as I thus addressed him was impressive
but calm; I had formed in my own heart a resolution to pursue my destroyer to
death, and this purpose quieted my agony and for an interval reconciled me to
life. I now related my history briefly but with firmness and precision, marking
the dates with accuracy and never deviating into invective or exclamation.
The
magistrate appeared at first perfectly incredulous, but as I continued he
became more attentive and interested; I saw him sometimes shudder with horror;
at others a lively surprise, unmingled with disbelief, was painted on his
countenance. When I had concluded my narration I said, "This is the being
whom I accuse and for whose seizure and punishment I call upon you to exert
your whole power. It is your duty as a magistrate, and I believe and hope that
your feelings as a man will not revolt from the execution of those functions on
this occasion." This address caused a considerable change in the
physiognomy of my own auditor. He had heard my story with that half kind of
belief that is given to a tale of spirits and supernatural events; but when he
was called upon to act officially in consequence, the whole tide of his
incredulity returned. He, however, answered mildly, "I would willingly
afford you every aid in your pursuit, but the creature of whom you speak
appears to have powers which would put all my exertions to defiance. Who can
follow an animal which can traverse the sea of ice and inhabit caves and dens
where no man would venture to intrude? Besides, some months have elapsed since the
commission of his crimes, and no one can conjecture to what place he has
wandered or what region he may now inhabit."
"I do
not doubt that he hovers near the spot which I inhabit, and if he has indeed
taken refuge in the Alps, he may be hunted like the chamois and destroyed as a
beast of prey. But I perceive your thoughts; you do not credit my narrative and
do not intend to pursue my enemy with the punishment which is his desert."
As I spoke, rage sparkled in my eyes; the magistrate was intimidated. "You
are mistaken," said he. "I will exert myself, and if it is in my
power to seize the monster, be assured that he shall suffer punishment
proportionate to his crimes. But I fear, from what you have yourself described
to be his properties, that this will prove impracticable; and thus, while every
proper measure is pursued, you should make up your mind to
disappointment."
"That
cannot be; but all that I can say will be of little avail. My revenge is of no
moment to you; yet, while I allow it to be a vice, I confess that it is the
devouring and only passion of my soul. My rage is unspeakable when I reflect
that the murderer, whom I have turned loose upon society, still exists. You
refuse my just demand; I have but one resource, and I devote myself, either in my
life or death, to his destruction."
I trembled
with excess of agitation as I said this; there was a frenzy in my manner, and
something, I doubt not, of that haughty fierceness which the martyrs of old are
said to have possessed. But to a Genevan magistrate, whose mind was occupied by
far other ideas than those of devotion and heroism, this elevation of mind had
much the appearance of madness. He endeavoured to soothe me as a nurse does a
child and reverted to my tale as the effects of delirium.
"Man,"
I cried, "how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom! Cease; you know
not what it is you say."
I broke
from the house angry and disturbed and retired to meditate on some other mode
of action.
Chapter 24
My present
situation was one in which all voluntary thought was swallowed up and lost. I
was hurried away by fury; revenge alone endowed me with strength and composure;
it moulded my feelings and allowed me to be calculating and calm at periods
when otherwise delirium or death would have been my portion.
My first
resolution was to quit Geneva forever; my country, which, when I was happy and
beloved, was dear to me, now, in my adversity, became hateful. I provided
myself with a sum of money, together with a few jewels which had belonged to my
mother, and departed. And now my wanderings began which are to cease but with
life. I have traversed a vast portion of the earth and have endured all the
hardships which travellers in deserts and barbarous countries are wont to meet.
How I have lived I hardly know; many times have I stretched my failing limbs
upon the sandy plain and prayed for death. But revenge kept me alive; I dared
not die and leave my adversary in being.
When I
quitted Geneva my first labour was to gain some clue by which I might trace the
steps of my fiendish enemy. But my plan was unsettled, and I wandered many
hours round the confines of the town, uncertain what path I should pursue. As
night approached I found myself at the entrance of the cemetery where William,
Elizabeth, and my father reposed. I entered it and approached the tomb which
marked their graves. Everything was silent except the leaves of the trees,
which were gently agitated by the wind; the night was nearly dark, and the
scene would have been solemn and affecting even to an uninterested observer.
The spirits of the departed seemed to flit around and to cast a shadow, which
was felt but not seen, around the head of the mourner.
The deep
grief which this scene had at first excited quickly gave way to rage and
despair. They were dead, and I lived; their murderer also lived, and to destroy
him I must drag out my weary existence. I knelt on the grass and kissed the
earth and with quivering lips exclaimed, "By the sacred earth on which I
kneel, by the shades that wander near me, by the deep and eternal grief that I
feel, I swear; and by thee, O Night, and the spirits that preside over thee, to
pursue the daemon who caused this misery, until he or I shall perish in mortal
conflict. For this purpose I will preserve my life; to execute this dear
revenge will I again behold the sun and tread the green herbage of earth, which
otherwise should vanish from my eyes forever. And I call on you, spirits of the
dead, and on you, wandering ministers of vengeance, to aid and conduct me in my
work. Let the cursed and hellish monster drink deep of agony; let him feel the
despair that now torments me." I had begun my adjuration with solemnity
and an awe which almost assured me that the shades of my murdered friends heard
and approved my devotion, but the furies possessed me as I concluded, and rage
choked my utterance.
I was
answered through the stillness of night by a loud and fiendish laugh. It rang
on my ears long and heavily; the mountains re-echoed it, and I felt as if all
hell surrounded me with mockery and laughter. Surely in that moment I should
have been possessed by frenzy and have destroyed my miserable existence but
that my vow was heard and that I was reserved for vengeance. The laughter died
away, when a well-known and abhorred voice, apparently close to my ear,
addressed me in an audible whisper, "I am satisfied, miserable wretch! You
have determined to live, and I am satisfied."
I darted
towards the spot from which the sound proceeded, but the devil eluded my grasp.
Suddenly the broad disk of the moon arose and shone full upon his ghastly and
distorted shape as he fled with more than mortal speed.
I pursued
him, and for many months this has been my task. Guided by a slight clue, I
followed the windings of the Rhone, but vainly. The blue Mediterranean
appeared, and by a strange chance, I saw the fiend enter by night and hide
himself in a vessel bound for the Black Sea. I took my passage in the same
ship, but he escaped, I know not how.
Amidst the
wilds of Tartary and Russia, although he still evaded me, I have ever followed
in his track. Sometimes the peasants, scared by this horrid apparition,
informed me of his path; sometimes he himself, who feared that if I lost all
trace of him I should despair and die, left some mark to guide me. The snows
descended on my head, and I saw the print of his huge step on the white plain.
To you first entering on life, to whom care is new and agony unknown, how can
you understand what I have felt and still feel? Cold, want, and fatigue were
the least pains which I was destined to endure; I was cursed by some devil and
carried about with me my eternal hell; yet still a spirit of good followed and
directed my steps and when I most murmured would suddenly extricate me from
seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Sometimes, when nature, overcome by
hunger, sank under the exhaustion, a repast was prepared for me in the desert
that restored and inspirited me. The fare was, indeed, coarse, such as the
peasants of the country ate, but I will not doubt that it was set there by the
spirits that I had invoked to aid me. Often, when all was dry, the heavens
cloudless, and I was parched by thirst, a slight cloud would bedim the sky,
shed the few drops that revived me, and vanish.
I
followed, when I could, the courses of the rivers; but the daemon generally
avoided these, as it was here that the population of the country chiefly
collected. In other places human beings were seldom seen, and I generally
subsisted on the wild animals that crossed my path. I had money with me and gained
the friendship of the villagers by distributing it; or I brought with me some
food that I had killed, which, after taking a small part, I always presented to
those who had provided me with fire and utensils for cooking.
My life,
as it passed thus, was indeed hateful to me, and it was during sleep alone that
I could taste joy. O blessed sleep! Often, when most miserable, I sank to
repose, and my dreams lulled me even to rapture. The spirits that guarded me
had provided these moments, or rather hours, of happiness that I might retain
strength to fulfil my pilgrimage. Deprived of this respite, I should have sunk
under my hardships. During the day I was sustained and inspirited by the hope
of night, for in sleep I saw my friends, my wife, and my beloved country; again
I saw the benevolent countenance of my father, heard the silver tones of my
Elizabeth's voice, and beheld Clerval enjoying health and youth. Often, when
wearied by a toilsome march, I persuaded myself that I was dreaming until night
should come and that I should then enjoy reality in the arms of my dearest
friends. What agonizing fondness did I feel for them! How did I cling to their
dear forms, as sometimes they haunted even my waking hours, and persuade myself
that they still lived! At such moments vengeance, that burned within me, died
in my heart, and I pursued my path towards the destruction of the daemon more
as a task enjoined by heaven, as the mechanical impulse of some power of which
I was unconscious, than as the ardent desire of my soul. What his feelings were
whom I pursued I cannot know. Sometimes, indeed, he left marks in writing on
the barks of the trees or cut in stone that guided me and instigated my fury.
"My reign is not yet over"—these words were legible in one of these
inscriptions—"you live, and my power is complete. Follow me; I seek the
everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and
frost, to which I am impassive. You will find near this place, if you follow
not too tardily, a dead hare; eat and be refreshed. Come on, my enemy; we have
yet to wrestle for our lives, but many hard and miserable hours must you endure
until that period shall arrive."
Scoffing
devil! Again do I vow vengeance; again do I devote thee, miserable fiend, to
torture and death. Never will I give up my search until he or I perish; and
then with what ecstasy shall I join my Elizabeth and my departed friends, who
even now prepare for me the reward of my tedious toil and horrible pilgrimage!
As I still
pursued my journey to the northward, the snows thickened and the cold increased
in a degree almost too severe to support. The peasants were shut up in their
hovels, and only a few of the most hardy ventured forth to seize the animals
whom starvation had forced from their hiding-places to seek for prey. The
rivers were covered with ice, and no fish could be procured; and thus I was cut
off from my chief article of maintenance. The triumph of my enemy increased
with the difficulty of my labours. One inscription that he left was in these
words: "Prepare! Your toils only begin; wrap yourself in furs and provide
food, for we shall soon enter upon a journey where your sufferings will satisfy
my everlasting hatred."
My courage
and perseverance were invigorated by these scoffing words; I resolved not to
fail in my purpose, and calling on heaven to support me, I continued with
unabated fervour to traverse immense deserts, until the ocean appeared at a
distance and formed the utmost boundary of the horizon. Oh! How unlike it was
to the blue seasons of the south! Covered with ice, it was only to be
distinguished from land by its superior wildness and ruggedness. The Greeks
wept for joy when they beheld the Mediterranean from the hills of Asia, and
hailed with rapture the boundary of their toils. I did not weep, but I knelt
down and with a full heart thanked my guiding spirit for conducting me in
safety to the place where I hoped, notwithstanding my adversary's gibe, to meet
and grapple with him.
Some weeks
before this period I had procured a sledge and dogs and thus traversed the
snows with inconceivable speed. I know not whether the fiend possessed the same
advantages, but I found that, as before I had daily lost ground in the pursuit,
I now gained on him, so much so that when I first saw the ocean he was but one
day's journey in advance, and I hoped to intercept him before he should reach
the beach. With new courage, therefore, I pressed on, and in two days arrived
at a wretched hamlet on the seashore. I inquired of the inhabitants concerning
the fiend and gained accurate information. A gigantic monster, they said, had
arrived the night before, armed with a gun and many pistols, putting to flight
the inhabitants of a solitary cottage through fear of his terrific appearance.
He had carried off their store of winter food, and placing it in a sledge, to
draw which he had seized on a numerous drove of trained dogs, he had harnessed
them, and the same night, to the joy of the horror-struck villagers, had
pursued his journey across the sea in a direction that led to no land; and they
conjectured that he must speedily be destroyed by the breaking of the ice or
frozen by the eternal frosts.
On hearing
this information I suffered a temporary access of despair. He had escaped me,
and I must commence a destructive and almost endless journey across the
mountainous ices of the ocean, amidst cold that few of the inhabitants could
long endure and which I, the native of a genial and sunny climate, could not
hope to survive. Yet at the idea that the fiend should live and be triumphant,
my rage and vengeance returned, and like a mighty tide, overwhelmed every other
feeling. After a slight repose, during which the spirits of the dead hovered
round and instigated me to toil and revenge, I prepared for my journey. I exchanged
my land-sledge for one fashioned for the inequalities of the frozen ocean, and
purchasing a plentiful stock of provisions, I departed from land.
I cannot
guess how many days have passed since then, but I have endured misery which
nothing but the eternal sentiment of a just retribution burning within my heart
could have enabled me to support. Immense and rugged mountains of ice often
barred up my passage, and I often heard the thunder of the ground sea, which
threatened my destruction. But again the frost came and made the paths of the
sea secure.
By the
quantity of provision which I had consumed, I should guess that I had passed
three weeks in this journey; and the continual protraction of hope, returning
back upon the heart, often wrung bitter drops of despondency and grief from my
eyes. Despair had indeed almost secured her prey, and I should soon have sunk
beneath this misery. Once, after the poor animals that conveyed me had with
incredible toil gained the summit of a sloping ice mountain, and one, sinking
under his fatigue, died, I viewed the expanse before me with anguish, when
suddenly my eye caught a dark speck upon the dusky plain. I strained my sight
to discover what it could be and uttered a wild cry of ecstasy when I
distinguished a sledge and the distorted proportions of a well-known form
within. Oh! With what a burning gush did hope revisit my heart! Warm tears
filled my eyes, which I hastily wiped away, that they might not intercept the
view I had of the daemon; but still my sight was dimmed by the burning drops,
until, giving way to the emotions that oppressed me, I wept aloud.
But this
was not the time for delay; I disencumbered the dogs of their dead companion,
gave them a plentiful portion of food, and after an hour's rest, which was absolutely
necessary, and yet which was bitterly irksome to me, I continued my route. The
sledge was still visible, nor did I again lose sight of it except at the
moments when for a short time some ice-rock concealed it with its intervening
crags. I indeed perceptibly gained on it, and when, after nearly two days'
journey, I beheld my enemy at no more than a mile distant, my heart bounded
within me.
But now,
when I appeared almost within grasp of my foe, my hopes were suddenly
extinguished, and I lost all trace of him more utterly than I had ever done
before. A ground sea was heard; the thunder of its progress, as the waters
rolled and swelled beneath me, became every moment more ominous and terrific. I
pressed on, but in vain. The wind arose; the sea roared; and, as with the
mighty shock of an earthquake, it split and cracked with a tremendous and
overwhelming sound. The work was soon finished; in a few minutes a tumultuous
sea rolled between me and my enemy, and I was left drifting on a scattered
piece of ice that was continually lessening and thus preparing for me a hideous
death. In this manner many appalling hours passed; several of my dogs died, and
I myself was about to sink under the accumulation of distress when I saw your
vessel riding at anchor and holding forth to me hopes of succour and life. I
had no conception that vessels ever came so far north and was astounded at the
sight. I quickly destroyed part of my sledge to construct oars, and by these
means was enabled, with infinite fatigue, to move my ice raft in the direction
of your ship. I had determined, if you were going southwards, still to trust
myself to the mercy of the seas rather than abandon my purpose. I hoped to
induce you to grant me a boat with which I could pursue my enemy. But your direction
was northwards. You took me on board when my vigour was exhausted, and I should
soon have sunk under my multiplied hardships into a death which I still dread,
for my task is unfulfilled.
Oh! When
will my guiding spirit, in conducting me to the daemon, allow me the rest I so
much desire; or must I die, and he yet live? If I do, swear to me, Walton, that
he shall not escape, that you will seek him and satisfy my vengeance in his
death. And do I dare to ask of you to undertake my pilgrimage, to endure the
hardships that I have undergone? No; I am not so selfish. Yet, when I am dead,
if he should appear, if the ministers of vengeance should conduct him to you,
swear that he shall not live—swear that he shall not triumph over my
accumulated woes and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes. He is
eloquent and persuasive, and once his words had even power over my heart; but
trust him not. His soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery and
fiend-like malice. Hear him not; call on the names of William, Justine,
Clerval, Elizabeth, my father, and of the wretched Victor, and thrust your
sword into his heart. I will hover near and direct the steel aright.
To be concluded
