I have lifted it for a moment, even in this narrative, with a reluctant hand, and dropped it gladly.

The remembrance of that life is fraught with so much pain to me, with so much mental suffering and want of hope, that I have never had the courage even to examine how long I was doomed to lead it.

Whether it lasted for a year, or more, or less, I do not know.

I only know that it was, and ceased to be; and that I have written, and there I leave it..