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!"
And undoubtedly, when he had got to the spot where the ledge came to
an end, Azazel seemed puzzled to know what to do next. I edged up to
him closer and closer, full of a noble excitement, and laughing in
anticipation at the coming descent and the splash in the torrent below.
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