The latter idea seemed the most probable; Yet so natural is the love of life, that I trembled to find it true.

Though embittered by every species of misery, my existence was still dear to me, and I dreaded to lose it.

Every succeeding minute proved to me that I must abandon all hopes of relief.
I was become an absolute skeleton: My eyes already failed me, and my limbs were beginning to stiffen.

I could only express my anguish, and the pangs of that hunger which gnawed my heart-strings, by frequent groans, whose melancholy sound the vaulted roof of the dungeon re-echoed.

I resigned myself to my fate: I already expected the moment of dissolution, when my Guardian Angel, when my beloved Brother arrived in time to save me.