"Azazel! goat destined for misery and expiation, I lay upon your hairy back the remorse of my friend Elias Hirsch, and I send you down to the spirits of darkness!"
Then, passing round the ledge on which we stood, I descended to the next below to catch the goat and throw him over.
A sacred rage and fury seemed to possess me. I took no notice of the abyss. I stepped along the edge of the precipice like a cat.
The goat, perceiving my approach, eyed me suspiciously, and stepped back a little way.
"Ha!" I cried, "you may flee from me, but you shall not escape from me, accursed beast! I have got you!"
"Oh, Christian, Christian!" Elias kept repeating in a heartrending voice, "do come back. You are risking your life!"
"Silence, unbeliever!" I cried. "You are unworthy of the great sacrifice which I am making for your happiness! But your friend Christian never draws back. Azazel must perish!"
A little farther on the ledge narrowed and ended in a point.
The goat, having a second time examined me with a curious eye, drew back a little farther, but not without some hesitation.
"Aha!" I exclaimed, "you are beginning to understand what is going to happen. Yes, let me get you into that corner, and your doom is sealed!"