第20章 極度懲罰

Mary Shelley

處在即將被審判的境地，“我”的命運將會走向何方？

The judge was an old, kind man, but his face was very serious as he looked at me. He asked a number of men to tell me what they had seen and found the night before.

The first man told his story. He and his son were coming home from a long day's fishing. It was a dark night, and on the beach they had fallen over the dead body of a man. They had carried the body to the nearest house, and found that it was a good-looking young man about twentyfive years old. There were marks of fingers round his neck. When they spoke of the marks of fingers, I remembered the murder of my brother and I felt a terrible fear.

The son then told his story. He had seen a boat with a man in it, not far from the beach. He thought it was my boat. A woman had also seen a man in a boat sailing away from the beach. She thought I was the man.

Then I was taken to the room where the dead body lay. How can I tell you how I felt when I saw the body? I put my arms round it and cried, “What have I done?My friend! My dear friend! ” The body was Henry Clerval's, and so now I had destroyed another person.

This third death was too much for me.I fell down in a kind of madness, and they had to carry me from the room. For two months I was very ill and wished only to die. But slowly my madness left me, and my health began to return. At last I was able to speak to Judge Kerwin, and I asked for news of my family.

“There is someone here who can answer your question better than I can,” he said. “Your father arrived a few minutes ago, and is waiting to see you.”

For the first time since Henry's death,I felt some happiness. I held out my hands to my father as he came into the room, and he took me in his arms. He gave me the good news that Elizabeth and Ernest were safe and well.

I was really too ill to travel, but I asked my father to take me home immediately. The police had found somebody who had seen me on my island at the time of the murder, and so the judge let me go free.

My father looked after me on the long journey home, and sat with me every minute. Night after night while I was asleep, I shouted that I was the murderer of William, Justine, and Henry. My father asked me why I said these awful things. I wanted to answer his question, but I could not tell him my terrible secret. He thought that I was still a little mad.

Reading Check

What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph imply?

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