She was, in truth, the only
being I had ever looked upon with fondness; and deeply
even as I had been injured by her, I wept her memory with
many a scalding tear. This, however, only increased my
hatred for him who had rioted in her beauty, and supplanted
me in her devotedness. I had the means of learning,
occasionally, all that passed in the regiment; and the
same account that brought me the news of your mother's
death also gave me the intelligence that three children
had been the fruit of her union with De Haldimar. How,"
pursued Wacousta, with bitter energy, "shall I express
the deep loathing I felt for those children? It seemed
to me as if their existence had stamped a seal of infamy
on my own brow; and I hated them, even in their childhood,
as the offspring of an abhorred, and, as it appeared to
me, an unnatural union. I heard, moreover (and this gave
me pleasure), that their father doated on them; and from
that moment I resolved to turn his cup of joy into
bitterness, even as he had turned mine. I no longer sought
his life; for the jealousy that had half impelled that
thirst existed no longer: but, deeming his cold nature
at least accessible through his parental affection, I
was resolved that in his children he should suffer a
portion of the agonies he had inflicted on me.
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