ABSTRACT
The deed I had acted, and the objects before me, produced a total revolution of my nature, a revulsion of blood from all the subordinate parts of my frame to the heart. It may seem strange: but the wildness and incoherence of my thoughts, the frantic sallies of mind, which had overwhelmed and tortured me from the instant I had set out on my return home, were gone: all within me was a forced and fearful calmness and composure. This was doubtless the result of the critical situation in which I stood. I was called on to determine and to act. Two human bodies, dead, or apparently dead, lay at my feet. It was incumbent / on me to give directions concerning them, and to consult as to the conduct I was to pursue for myself. Three servants had attended me in my journey. Their distance was not such, as to prevent them from distinctly witnessing what had passed. Comformably to the instinct of human nature on such occasions, they hastened to the spot. Curiosity for ever prompts us to watch narrowly what occurs in a tragic scene, and to exercise our understandings in judging of the merits and demerits of the parties, and remarking the winding up of the whole. Margaret’s female attendant was also there. By a fortunate chance Rowland, my steward, had been on horseback in an adjoining field, and now made one of the group. They looked first with wonder on the body of William whom I had killed, and then turned their eyes with silent awe upon me.
