noon
I know not how incoherently the tale was told ; I can not say how often I interrupted my own recital by some appeal to the past , -- some half-uttered hope that she had seen the passion which burned within me . I can but remember the bursting feeling of my bosom , as she placed her hand in mine , and said , -- `` It is yours ! '' These words ended the story of a life whose trials were many , and encountered at an age in which few have braved the world 's cares . The lessons I had learned , however , were acquired in that school , -- adversity , -- where few are taught in vain ; and if the morning of my life broke in clouds and shadow , the noon has been not less peaceful and bright . And the evening , as it draws near , comes with an aspect of calm tranquillity , ample enough to recompense every vicissitude of those early days when the waves of fortune were roughest . Dear Friends , -- Time has hallowed the custom of a word at parting , and I am unwilling to relinquish the privilege . In the tale I have just concluded , my endeavor was to portray , with as little aid from fiction as might be , some lights and shadows of the most wonderful and eventful period of modern history , -- the empire of Napoleon .