The custom of our people now requires that you should assume the
attributes of manhood. To-day, then, your reign commences; and at
our festival I will present the elders to their prince. For a while,
farewell, my child. Array that face in smiles. I shall most anxiously
await your presence.'
'Farewell, sir.'
He turned his head and watched his uncle as he departed: the bitter
expression of his countenance gradually melted away as Bostenay
disappeared: dejection succeeded to sarcasm; he sighed, he threw himself
upon a couch and buried his face in his hands.
Suddenly he arose and paced the chamber with an irregular and moody
step. He stopped, and leant against a column. He spoke in a tremulous
and smothered voice:
'Oh! my heart is full of care, and my soul is dark with sorrow! What
am I? What is all this? A cloud hangs heavy o'er my life. God of my
fathers, let it burst!
'I know not what I feel, yet what I feel is madness. Thus to be is not
to live, if life be what I sometimes dream, and dare to think it might
be. To breathe, to feed, to sleep, to wake and breathe again, again to
feel existence without hope; if this be life, why then these brooding
thoughts that whisper death were better?
'Away! The demon tempts me.
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