He began to answer with violence: "Yes, yes, I hate you! You are my bane, my poison, my disgust! Oh! No[!]" And then his manner changed, and fixing his eyes on me with an expression that convulsed every nerve and member of my frame--"you are none of all these; you are my light, my only one, my life .-- My daughter, I love you!" The last words died away in a hoarse whisper, but I heard them and sunk on the ground, covering my face and almost dead with excess of sickness and fear: a cold perspiration covered my forehead and I shivered in every limb--But he continued, clasping his hands with a frantic gesture: "Now I have dashed from the top of the rock to the bottom! Now I have precipitated myself down the fearful chasm! The danger is over; she is alive! Oh, Mathilda, lift up those dear eyes in the light of which I live.

Let me hear the sweet tones of your beloved voice in peace and calm.

Monster as I am, you are still, as you ever were, lovely, beautiful beyond expression.

What I have become since this last moment I know not; perhaps I am changed in mien as the fallen archangel.

I do believe I am for I have surely a new soul within me, and my blood riots through my veins: I am burnt up with fever.