Page 7 - Mary Shelley

Alighieri could have conceived.
I spent a hellish night. Sometimes the pulse beat so quickly and violently that I could feel the palpitations of each artery; other times the extreme weakness and languor almost made me collapse on the ground. Along with the horror I felt the bitterness of disillusionment: dreams that had long been my food and my refreshment had turned into nightmares; and the overthrow had been so rapid, so complete defeat!
The morning rose, sad and rainy, and showed to my sleepless and aching eyes the church of Ingolstadt, its white bell tower and the clock that marked six o'clock. The keeper opened the gates of the courtyard that had been my kindergarten that night and I went out into the streets walking at a brisk pace as if to escape the monster I feared would appear before me in every corner. I didn't have the courage to go back to my quarters, I felt driven to walk despite the rain that fell from a black and discouraging sky got me wet to the marrow.
NOTES TO THE TEXT:
1) feet: unit of measurement of length in use in Anglo-Saxon countries. One foot corresponds to 30.48 cm. 2) convulsive: nervous agitation.
3) features: characteristic of the face.
4) immoderate: excessive desire to get something.
5) exhaustion: attrition of strength and resistance to the limit of extinction.
6) Elizabeth: Dr. Frankenstein's girlfriend.
7) Ingolstadt: German city located in Bavaria, where Dr. Frankenstein had studied medicine.