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Article THE COUNTESS AND THE SERF* ← Page 19 of 23 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Countess And The Serf*
was written upon your heart , and that I had found freedom in your affection . Talk no more then of an union with the nameless and degraded serf . Believe me you ivould one clay blush to have mated yourself so basely . I came here , not as a suitor , but as a desperate man—to die . " " Ivan ! " again shrieked the countessas she rushed tow r ards
, him , but she was repelled by his outstretched arm , ancl fell to the earth , fainting . The report of a pistol rang at the same instant through the castle ; the attendants flocked from all sides to the chamber of their mistress ; but their haste availed nothing . Ivan lay beside his foster-sister , dead ; and her white dress was dabbled with his blood .
While this tragedy was enacting at the schloss of Zamoiski , the unhappy Countess Eudoxia had suffered the keenest pangs of mental anguish . In the excitement of her heroic resolve she had believed herself to be resigned to her fate ; but when all was over , and she had parted from Ivan for ever , the factitious force of self-abnegation gave way , ancl as she pursued her dreary journey toivards Wilna , she abandoned herself to all the liolenee of despair .
" How soon shall I be forgotten ! " she murmured ; " and yet I loved them both so tenderly—I would have laid down my life to save them one pang—and am I not about to do it ? Is not the cloister a living death , wdiose monotony is second only to that of the tomb ; I cannot bear it ! " she pursued , trembling with a febrile emotion which aroused her own terror : " I feel
that I shall go mad if I thus separate myself from all the interests of my fellow-beings . I could not support the silence , the uselessness , the dull ancl dreary succession of aimless and featureless days , to which I must be condemned . No ; if I would ever regain the peace that I have lost , I must tread a i-ougher path than that ivhich leads from the convent-cell to the
grave . I must look on suffering more visible , if not more poignant than my own ; I must feel that I have not lived wholly in vain . And I can do this ; the haunts of pain and misery are soon found , and there will I minister ; and when long months have worn away , ancl that sympathy in the sorrows of others has taught me to control my OAvn , then will I once
more trust myself to look upon the happiness of those from Avhom I am UOAV severed ; and learn to be thankful for their felicity , even although my OAVU hopes are blighted for ever . "
In accordance with this resolution the Countess Eudoxia , on her arrival at Wilna , dismissed the feAV attendants by Avhom she had been accompanied on her journey ; ancl bestowed upon each his freedom , on the sole condition that he should not return to
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Countess And The Serf*
was written upon your heart , and that I had found freedom in your affection . Talk no more then of an union with the nameless and degraded serf . Believe me you ivould one clay blush to have mated yourself so basely . I came here , not as a suitor , but as a desperate man—to die . " " Ivan ! " again shrieked the countessas she rushed tow r ards
, him , but she was repelled by his outstretched arm , ancl fell to the earth , fainting . The report of a pistol rang at the same instant through the castle ; the attendants flocked from all sides to the chamber of their mistress ; but their haste availed nothing . Ivan lay beside his foster-sister , dead ; and her white dress was dabbled with his blood .
While this tragedy was enacting at the schloss of Zamoiski , the unhappy Countess Eudoxia had suffered the keenest pangs of mental anguish . In the excitement of her heroic resolve she had believed herself to be resigned to her fate ; but when all was over , and she had parted from Ivan for ever , the factitious force of self-abnegation gave way , ancl as she pursued her dreary journey toivards Wilna , she abandoned herself to all the liolenee of despair .
" How soon shall I be forgotten ! " she murmured ; " and yet I loved them both so tenderly—I would have laid down my life to save them one pang—and am I not about to do it ? Is not the cloister a living death , wdiose monotony is second only to that of the tomb ; I cannot bear it ! " she pursued , trembling with a febrile emotion which aroused her own terror : " I feel
that I shall go mad if I thus separate myself from all the interests of my fellow-beings . I could not support the silence , the uselessness , the dull ancl dreary succession of aimless and featureless days , to which I must be condemned . No ; if I would ever regain the peace that I have lost , I must tread a i-ougher path than that ivhich leads from the convent-cell to the
grave . I must look on suffering more visible , if not more poignant than my own ; I must feel that I have not lived wholly in vain . And I can do this ; the haunts of pain and misery are soon found , and there will I minister ; and when long months have worn away , ancl that sympathy in the sorrows of others has taught me to control my OAvn , then will I once
more trust myself to look upon the happiness of those from Avhom I am UOAV severed ; and learn to be thankful for their felicity , even although my OAVU hopes are blighted for ever . "
In accordance with this resolution the Countess Eudoxia , on her arrival at Wilna , dismissed the feAV attendants by Avhom she had been accompanied on her journey ; ancl bestowed upon each his freedom , on the sole condition that he should not return to