text:  And where was I while the one to whom every affection of my nature was indissolubly bound this creature of beauty fondness and magnanimity was wasting her life in sorrow in captivity in the bitterness of the broken heart? If I could not reproach myself with having increased her calamities yet had I assuaged them; had I flown to her rescue; had I protected her against the cruelties of fortune; had I defied sword in hand the heartless and arrogant villain who had brought her into such hopeless peril? Those thoughts rushed through my brain in torture and it was some time before I could resume the reading of the blotted lines upon my table