Margaret, oh! my beloved sister,
I have listened to the strangest tale
that ever imagination formed;
a terrific story with words so replete with anguish!
I am lost in surprise and admiration…
A week has passed away…
His fine and lovely eyes were now
subdued to downcast sorrow
as he related the most horrible incidents,
suppressing every mark of agitation.
Said he, “I executed the creation of a man, and
thus,
I am chained in eternal hell.”
I wish to soothe him, Margaret,
a friend who would sympathize with
and love me.
I can hear him, beloved Sister;
his eloquence is forcible and touching.
“I must pursue and destroy
the being to whom I gave existence!
Then
I will be fulfilled.”
This speech troubled me, yet
I had not conceived the idea of returning
if set free.
The cold is excessive, my beloved Margaret…
I sat watching my unfortunate guest-
his eyes half closed, limbs hanging listlessly.
A feverish fire still glimmers in his eyes.
He roused himself, seized with sudden agony,
his voice broken:
“Alas! the strength I relied on is gone.
When younger, I believed myself destined for
some great enterprise. Now all my
speculations and hopes are as
..nothing.
I thank you, Walton, for your kind intentions.”
Must I lose this admirable being, Margaret?
Oh! Sister, the die is cast!
(I am interrupted…)
Great God! I cannot find words to describe!
A form gigantic
in stature,
yet unnccooouthhh
and d-i-s-t-o-r-t-e-d in its proportions!
Never
did I behold a vision so
horrible
as his face!
Such loathsome yet appalling hideousness!
I shut my eyes, Margaret.
The words died.. away on my lips.
He paused, looking on me with wonder.
“Do
you think that I was then dead
to
agony and remorse? He suffered not in the
consummation
of the deed- oh!
not the ten-thousandth portion of the anguish
that
was mine! I sought love of virtue,
the
feelings of happiness and affection.
Wrenched
by misery, I subdued all anguish,
to
riot in the excess of my despair.
No
sympathy may I ever find.”
Beloved Sister, I dared not again
raise my eyes to his face.
But the monster, Margaret,
so scaring and unearthly in his ugliness,
yet now suspended by a mixture of
curiosity and
compassion, cried,
with sad and solemn enthusiasm,
“Soon,
I shall die,
and
these burning miseries will be extinct!
I
shall exult in the agony of the torturing flames;
the
light of that conflagration will fade away;
my
ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds.
Torn
by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest
but
in death? My spirit will sleep in peace divine.
Oh,
Frankenstein! Oh, Frankenstein!”
He was soon borne away by the waves
and lost..
..in
darkness..
..and
distance…
My beloved sister,
do you not feel your blood congeal with horror
like that which even now curdles mine?
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