He remembered how, from the very first day when he had seen her, she had
mysteriously influenced the whole progress of his life; how his ardour
to possess her had altered his occupations, and even interrupted his
amusements; how all his energy and all his wealth had been baffled in
the attempt to discover her when she fled from her father's house; how
the first feeling of remorse that he had ever known had been awakened
within him by his knowledge of the share he had had in producing her
unhappy fate. Recalling all this; reflecting that, had she approached
him at an earlier period, she would have been driven back affrighted by
the drunken clamour of his companions; and had she arrived at a later,
would have found his palace in flames; thinking at the same time of her
sudden presence in the banqueting-hall when he had believed her to be
dead, when her appearance at the moment before he fired the pile was
most irresistible in its supernatural influence over his actions--that
vague feeling of superstitious dread which exists intuitively in all
men's minds, which had never before been aroused in his, thrilled
through him.
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