While I was deferring the time of our departure from day to day I was gradually losing strength, and, although I did not perceive it, my vital forces were slowly wasting away.  When I sat at table I experienced a violent distaste for food; at night two pale faces, those of Brigitte and Smith, pursued me through frightful dreams.  When they went to the theatre in the evening I refused to go with them; then I went alone, concealed myself in the parquet, and watched them.  I pretended that I had some business to attend to in a neighboring room and sat there an hour and listened to them.  The idea occurred to me to seek a quarrel with Smith and force him to fight with me; I turned my back on him while he was talking; then he came to me with a look of surprise on his face, holding out his hand.  When I was alone in the night and every one slept, I felt a strong desire to go to Brigitte’s desk and take from it her papers.  On one occasion I was obliged to go out of the house in order to resist the temptation.  One day I felt like arming myself with a knife and threatening to kill them if they did not tell me why they were so sad; another day I turned all this fury against myself.  With what shame do I write it!  And if any one should ask me why I acted thus, I could not reply.

To see, to doubt, to search, to torture myself and make myself miserable, to pass entire days with my ear at the keyhole, and the night in a flood of tears, to repeat over and over that I should die of sorrow, to feel isolation and feebleness uprooting hope in my heart, to imagine that I was spying when I was only listening to the feverish beating of my own pulse; to con over stupid phrases, such as:  “Life is a dream, there is nothing stable here below;” to curse and blaspheme God through misery and through caprice:  that was my joy, the precious occupation for which I renounced love, the air of heaven, and liberty!

Eternal God, liberty!  Yes, there were certain moments when, in spite of all, I still thought of it.  In the midst of my madness, eccentricity, and stupidity, there were within me certain impulses that at times brought me to myself.  It was a breath of air which struck my face as I came from my dungeon; it was a page of a book I read when, in my bitter days, I happened to read something besides those modern sycophants called pamphleteers, who, out of regard for the public health, ought to be prevented from indulging in their crude philosophizings.  Since I have referred to these good moments, let me mention one of them, they were so rare.  One evening I was reading the Memoirs of Constant; I came to the following lines: 

“Salsdorf, a Saxon surgeon attached to Prince Christian, had his leg broken by a shell in the battle of Wagram.  He lay almost lifeless on the dusty field.  Fifteen paces distant, Amedee of Kerbourg, aide-de-camp (I have forgotten to whom), wounded in the breast by a bullet, fell to the ground vomiting blood.  Salsdorf saw that if that young man was not cared for he would die of suffusion; summoning all his powers, he painfully dragged himself to the side of the wounded man, attended to him and saved his life.  Salsdorf himself died four days later from the effects of amputation.”