His conversation was marked by its happy abundance.

The guilty are allowed, by human laws, bloody as they are, to speak in their own defence before they are condemned.

But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit what I shall soon cease to be - a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others and intolerable to myself.

What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.

I felt emotions of gentleness and pleasure, that had long appeared dead, revive within me. Half surprised by the novelty of these sensations, I allowed myself to be borne away by them, and forgetting my solitude and deformity, dared to be happy.

From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition.

From my birth I have aspired like the eagle - but unlike the eagle, my wings have failed. . . . Congratulate me then that I have found a fitting scope for my powers.