CHARLES-MELCHIOR DESCOURTIS, French, 1753-1820;
after JEAN FREDERIC SCHALL, French, 1752-1825
Paul and Virginie, 6
color aquatint, 1795
The William A. Whitaker Foundation Art Fund, 2001.9.9

Injured and half-drowned in attempting to rescue Virginie, Paul falls into a depression bordering on insanity. When he can walk again, he instinctively goes to Virginie's grave, followed by the narrator who fears that he will kill himself:

"As the young man descended the hill, his happiness and strength seemed to return ... he went straight to the place where he saw that the earth had been recently disturbed; there he knelt, and lifting his eyes to Heaven he made a long prayer. His behavior seemed to me a good sign of the return of his reason, for this mark of confidence in the Supreme Being showed that his soul was beginning to resume its natural functions."

Though rejecting suicide, Paul dies of grief, followed soon after by the other chief characters of the story. The narrator survives to preserve the memory of their virtuous lives.