Date: 1796

"Aided by her youth and healthy constitution, she shook off the malady which her mother's death had occasioned; but it was not so easy to remove the disease of her mind."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"She had naturally a strong inclination to the marvellous; and her nurse, who believed firmly in apparitions, had related to her, when an infant, so many horrible adventures of this kind, that all Elvira's attempts had failed to eradicate their impressions from her daughter's mind."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"She could not believe that the spectre had been a mere creature of her imagination: every circumstance was impressed upon her mind too forcibly to permit her flattering herself with such an idea."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"Upon this head Matilda re-assured him. She confirmed the arguments which himself had already used: she declared Antonia to have been deceived by the wandering of her brain, by the spleen which oppressed her at the moment, and by the natural turn of her mind to superstition and the marvellous."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"In spite of Matilda's assurances, that the spectre was a mere creation of fancy, his mind was impressed with a certain mysterious horror."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"I am now convinced that my reason wandered, and the falsehood of the ghost's prediction is sufficient to prove my error."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"A secret, an horrible secret weighs heavy upon my soul."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"The suddenness of his action sufficed to dissipate the fumes which obscured Antonia's reason."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"Amidst the horror and disgust to which his soul was a prey, pity for his victim still held a place in it."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"The storm of passion once over, he would have given worlds, had he possessed them, to have restored to her that innocence of which his unbridled lust had deprived her."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)