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I did confess, but I confessed a lie. I confessed, that I might obtain absolution; but now that falsehood lies heavier at my heart than all my other sins. The God of heaven forgive me! Ever since I was condemned, my confessor has besieged me; he threatened and menaced, until I almost began to think that I was the monster that he said I was. He threatened excommunication and hell fire in my last moments if I continued obdurate. Dear lady, I had none to support me; all looked on me as a wretch doomed to ignominy and perdition. What could I do? In an evil hour I subscribed to a lie; and now only am I truly miserable.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley#22

More from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  1. It is decided as you may have expected; all judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape. But she has confessed.

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  2. Live, and be happy, and make others so.

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  3. I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. …

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