#victurd

Warnings: Probably better than the original book

Starting at the very beginning of Chapter Three:

When I had attained the age of seventeen my parents resolved that I should become a student at the university of Ingolstadt. I had hitherto attended the schools of Geneva, but my father thought it necessary for the completion of my education that I should be made acquainted with other customs than those of my native country. My departure was therefore fixed at an early date, but before the day resolved upon could arrive, the first misfortune of my life occurred–an omen, as it were, of my future misery. Elizabeth had caught the scarlet fever; her illness was severe, and she was in the greatest danger. During her illness many arguments had been urged to persuade myself to refrain from attending upon her. I had at first yielded to their entreaties, but when I heard that the life of my favourite was menaced, I could no longer control my anxiety. I attended her sickbed; my watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper–Elizabeth was saved, but the consequences of this imprudence were fatal to her preserver. On the third day I sickened; my fever was accompanied by the most alarming symptoms, and the looks of the medical attendants prognosticated the worst event. On my deathbed a horrible vision plagued me; one of a grotesque future where a terrifying demon of my own creation haunted my life and conscience. It killed my family, my beloved Elizabeth (who I knew in my heart I was dying for in this very moment), and eventually itself. In my final hours I awoke from my vision with a strange and sure clarity.