“I have requited you badly, Albert; but you will forgive me.  I have disturbed the peace of your home.  I have sowed distrust between you.  Farewell!  I will end all this wretchedness.  And oh, that my death may render you happy!  Albert, Albert! make that angel happy, and the blessing of Heaven be upon you!”

He spent the rest of the evening in arranging his papers:  he tore and burned a great many; others he sealed up, and directed to Wilhelm.  They contained some detached thoughts and maxims, some of which I have perused.  At ten o’clock he ordered his fire to be made up, and a bottle of wine to be brought to him.  He then dismissed his servant, whose room, as well as the apartments of the rest of the family, was situated in another part of the house.  The servant lay down without undressing, that he might be the sooner ready for his journey in the morning, his master having informed him that the post-horses would be at the door before six o’clock.

“Past eleven o’clock!  All is silent around me, and my soul is calm.  I thank thee, O God, that thou bestowest strength and courage upon me in these last moments!  I approach the window, my dearest of friends; and through the clouds, which are at this moment driven rapidly along by the impetuous winds, I behold the stars which illumine the eternal heavens.  No, you will not fall, celestial bodies:  the hand of the Almighty supports both you and me!  I have looked for the last time upon the constellation of the Greater Bear:  it is my favourite star; for when I bade you farewell at night, Charlotte, and turned my steps from your door, it always shone upon me.  With what rapture have I at times beheld it!  How often have I implored it with uplifted hands to witness my felicity! and even still —­ But what object is there, Charlotte, which fails to summon up your image before me?  Do you not surround me on all sides? and have I not, like a child, treasured up every trifle which you have consecrated by your touch?

“Your profile, which was so dear to me, I return to you; and I pray you to preserve it.  Thousands of kisses have I imprinted upon it, and a thousand times has it gladdened my heart on departing from and returning to my home.

“I have implored your father to protect my remains.  At the corner of the churchyard, looking toward the fields, there are two lime-trees —­ there I wish to lie.  Your father can, and doubtless will, do this much for his friend.  Implore it of him.  But perhaps pious Christians will not choose that their bodies should be buried near the corpse of a poor, unhappy wretch like me.  Then let me be laid in some remote valley, or near the highway, where the priest and Levite may bless themselves as they pass by my tomb, whilst the Samaritan will shed a tear for my fate.