A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder James De Mille

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heartsick; and I came, a kindred nature, of a race more like her own;
and she saw in me the only one of all around her whom it was possible
not to detest, and therefore she loved me.
We had many things to say to one another, and long exchanges of
confidence to make. She now for the first time told me all the sorrow
that she had endured in her captivity--sorrow which she had kept
silent and shut up deep within her breast. At first her life here had
been so terrible that it had brought her down nearly to death. After
this she had sunk into dull despair; she had grown familiar with
horrors and lived in a state of unnatural calm. From this my arrival
had roused her. The display of feeling on my part had brought back
all her old self, and roused anew all those feelings which in her had
become dormant. The darkness, the bloodshed, the sacrifices, all these
affected me as they had once affected her. I had the same fear of
death which she had. When I had gone with her to the cheder nebilin,
when I had used my sepet-ram to save life, she had perceived in me
feelings and impulses to which all her own nature responded. Finally,
when I asked about the Mista Kosek, she warned me not to go. When I
did go she was with me in thought and suffered all that I felt, until
the moment when I was brought back and laid senseless at her feet.
"Then," said Almah, "I felt the full meaning of all that lies before
us."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked, anxiously. "You speak as though
there were something yet--worse than what has already been; yet
nothing can possibly be worse. We have seen the worst; let us now try
to shake off these grisly thoughts, and be happy with one another.
Your strength will soon be back, and while we have one another we can
be happy even in this gloom."
"Ah me," said Almah, "it would be better now to die. I could die happy
now, since I know that you love me."
"Death!" said I; "do not talk of it--do not mention that word. It is
more abhorrent than ever. No, Almah, let us live and love--let us
hope--let us fly."
"Impossible!" said she, in a mournful voice. "We cannot fly. There is
no hope. We must face the future, and make up our minds to bear our