who could utter so unfeeling a speech to a person just saved, on the very edge of death; but I felt languid, and unable to reflect on all that had passed. > The whole series of my life appeared to me as a dream; I sometimes doubted if indeed it were all true, for it never presented itself to my mind with the force of
As the images that floated before me became more distinct, I grew feverish; a darkness pressed around me:
no one was near me who soothed me with the gentle voice of love; no dear hand supported me.
The physician came and prescribed medicines, and the old woman prepared them for me; but utter carelessness was visible in the first, and the expression of brutality was strongly marked in the visage of the second.
Who could be interested in the fate of a murderer, but the hangman who would gain his fee?