THE DANCE OF DEATH . 25
scarcely had they attained their sixteenth year , when the unnatural brilliancy of their cheeks , and the almost supernatural lustre of their eyes , began to betray the internal hectic fire which was secretly wasting the strength of youth .
" Seldom at home , I had little idea of the evil which hung over our home . I had seen my eld- est sister in her beauty , and her wane ; and then I heard of her death . I was at the university when the second died . Shortly afterwards I visited my home . I found my third sister in the full bloom of youthful loveliness . I had been dabbling a little in painting , and felt anxious to attempt her portrait , but I had made no great progress when the time for my departure arrived . I was long absent ; when I next returned , it was on the occasion of her death . I was now no longer a heedless boy . I saw the melancholy of my father , and ascribed it to the shock of so many successive deaths . He was silent ; he left me in my happy ignorance , though even then the death- stillness and loneliness of the house weighed with an undefinable oppression on my heart . My sister Regina seemed to grow up even more lovely than her deceased sisters . I now found the sketch which I had begun so like her , that I resolved to make her sit to me in secret , that ] might finish the picture , and surprise my father with it before my departure . It was but half finished , however , when the period of my return to the capital arrived . I thought I would endea- vour to finish it from memory , but , strangely enough , I always confused myself with the re- collection of my dead sisters , whose features seemed to float before my eyes . In spite of all my efforts , the portrait would not become that of Regina . 1 recollected having heard my father say , that she , of all the rest , bore the greatest re- semblance to her mother ; so I took out a little picture of her , which she had left to me , and en- deavoured with this assistance , and what my fancy could supply , to finish the picture . At last it was finished , and appeared to possess a strange resemblance to all my sisters , without being an exact portrait of any .
" As I had intended it , however , for the por- trait of Regina in particular , I determined to take it with me on my next visit , and endeavour to correct its defects by a comparison with the original . I came , but the summer of her beauty was already past . When I drew out the picture to compare it with her features , I was shocked at the change which had taken place in her , though it had not yet manifested itself in symp- toms of disease . As I was packing up my draw- ing materials again , under some pretext or other , my father unexpectedly entered . He gave a glance at the picture , seemed deeply agitated , and then exclaimed- " Let it alone . "
" That evening , however , as , according to our old custom , we were sitting together in his study , after my sisters had gone to rest , our hearts reciprocally opened to each other .
" I now for the first time obtained a glimpse into my father's wounded heart . He related to me that dream as you have now heard it ; and
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his firm conviction that almost all his children , one by one , would be taken from him ; a convic- tion against which he had struggled , till fatal experience had begun too clearly to realize it . I now learned that he had brought up his daugh- ters in this strict and almost monastic seclusion , that no taste for the world or its pleasures might be awakened in the minds of those who were doomed to quit it so soon . They mingled in no gay assemblies , scarcely in a social party ; and even I , my friend , have since that time never thought of dancing without a shudder . Conceive what an impression this conversation , and that fearful prophetic dream , made upon my mind ! That I and my youngest sister seemed excepted from the doom of the rest , I could not pay much attention to ; for was not my mother , at my birth , suffering under that disease which she had be- queathed to her children ; and how , then , was it likely that I should be an exception ? My ima- gination was active enough to extend the sen- tence of death to us all . The interpretation which my father attempted to give to the dream , so as to preserve us to himself , might be but a delusive suggestion of paternal affection ; per- haps , self - deluded , he had forgotten , or given another turn to the conclusion of the dream . deep and wild despair seized upon me , for life to me was all in all ! In vain my father endeavour- ed to compose me ; and , finding his efforts un- successful , he contented himself with exacting from me the promise that this fatal secret of our house should be communicated to none .
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" It was at this time I became acquainted with you . The conflict which raged within my bosom between reason and superstition , between the struggles of courage and the suggestions of despair , could not be concealed from you , though you could form no idea of its source . I accom- panied you to Lubeck . The sight of the Dance of Death produced a remarkable effect upon my mind . 1 saw a representation of my mother's dream , and in that too , I thought I perceived also its origin . A film seemed to fall from my eyes ; it was the momentary triumph of sober reason . It struck me at once that the idea of this picture , which my mother had undoubtedly at one time seen , had been floating through her excited ima- gination , and had given rise to that dark vision , before whose fatal influence my father and I had prostrated ourselves so long , instead of ascribing the successive deaths of our family to their true source , in the infectious nature of that disease which my mother's insane love of dancing had infused into her own veins , and which had been the ominous inheritance of her offspring . The advances had already made in the study of medicine , confirmed these views . The confined and solitary life my sisters had led , the total want of any precaution in separating those who were still in health from those who had been already attacked by this malady , was in itself sufficient to account for all which had happened . Animated by this idea , I hurried home in spite of all your entreaties . I laboured to make my father participate in my views , to induce him to
