| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: prefer on your account. It is otherwise no point of my duty to
put you in mind of those things; only it may be for the ease of
your conscience to depart more like a Christian, and less like a
Turk, than you seem to be in a fair way of doing."
The only answer of the dying man--(for as such Ranald MacEagh
might now be considered)--was a request to be raised to such a
position that he might obtain a view from the window of the
Castle. The deep frost mist, which had long settled upon the top
of the mountains, was now rolling down each rugged glen and
gully, where the craggy ridges showed their black and irregular
outline, like desert islands rising above the ocean of vapour.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: the refractory Bricheteau would induce him to receive me. Mingling
with my entreaties the touch of a threat, I let him know that I was
firmly resolved at all costs to get to the bottom of the mystery which
weighed upon my life; the secret of which he evidently knew. The next
morning, before nine o'clock, I went to his house, only to learn that
after paying the rent to the end of his term, he had packed up his
furniture and left the house in the early morning, without the porter
being able to discover from the men who removed his property (well-
paid to keep silence, no doubt) where they were ordered to carry it.
These men being strangers in the quarter, it was quite impossible to
discover them later.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: heated fancy, they do not now influence me; I speak the language
of the natural, of the visible world.--You love not me, Annot--
you love Menteith--by him you are beloved again, and Allan is no
more to you than one of the corpses which encumber yonder heath."
It cannot be supposed that this strange speech conveyed any new
information to her who was thus addressed. No woman ever lived
who could not, in the same circumstances, have discerned long
since the state of her lover's mind. But by thus suddenly
tearing off the veil, thin as it was, Allan prepared her to
expect consequences violent in proportion to the enthusiasm of
his character. She made an effort to repel the charge he had
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