"Thus soliloquising and agitated, I journeyed onward for the remainder of

the night, and by daybreak I reached one of the passes of these

mountains, among which I wandered for three days more without taking any

path or road, until I came to some meadows lying on I know not which side

of the mountains, and there I inquired of some herdsmen in what direction

the most rugged part of the range lay. They told me that it was in this

quarter, and I at once directed my course hither, intending to end my

life here; but as I was making my way among these crags, my mule dropped

dead through fatigue and hunger, or, as I think more likely, in order to

have done with such a worthless burden as it bore in me. I was left on

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foot, worn out, famishing, without anyone to help me or any thought of

seeking help: and so thus I lay stretched on the ground, how long I know

not, after which I rose up free from hunger, and found beside me some

goatherds, who no doubt were the persons who had relieved me in my need,

for they told me how they had found me, and how I had been uttering

ravings that showed plainly I had lost my reason; and since then I am

conscious that I am not always in full possession of it, but at times so

deranged and crazed that I do a thousand mad things, tearing my clothes,

crying aloud in these solitudes, cursing my fate, and idly calling on the

dear name of her who is my enemy, and only seeking to end my life in

lamentation; and when I recover my senses I find myself so exhausted and

weary that I can scarcely move. Most commonly my dwelling is the hollow

of a cork tree large enough to shelter this miserable body; the herdsmen

and goatherds who frequent these mountains, moved by compassion, furnish

me with food, leaving it by the wayside or on the rocks, where they think

I may perhaps pass and find it; and so, even though I may be then out of

my senses, the wants of nature teach me what is required to sustain me,

and make me crave it and eager to take it. At other times, so they tell

me when they find me in a rational mood, I sally out upon the road, and

though they would gladly give it me, I snatch food by force from the

shepherds bringing it from the village to their huts. Thus do pass the

wretched life that remains to me, until it be Heaven's will to bring it

to a close, or so to order my memory that I no longer recollect the

beauty and treachery of Luscinda, or the wrong done me by Don Fernando;

for if it will do this without depriving me of life, I will turn my

thoughts into some better channel; if not, I can only implore it to have

full mercy on my soul, for in myself I feel no power or strength to

release my body from this strait in which I have of my own accord chosen

to place it.




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