Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 99: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. opened the door—and as the light of day streamed fully into the cellar-like place from which the _ Bpiral staircase led up, she found herself con- fronted by Edgar Marcellin! CHAPTER XVI. EDGAR AND LUCEEZYA. THE recognition was instantaneous; and a shriek of terror as well as of wild amazement was about to burst forth from the lips of Lucrezia di Mi- rano, when Edgar, dropping the little iron in- strument with which he had been on the very point of forcing off either the lock or the staple, when he heard a key grating in that lock, seized the Marchioness by the throat. He dragged her into the place; and as he released his hold upon her beautiful white neck, he said in a stern threatening voice, “Dare to raise an alarm, and I will mercilessly strangle you!” “That wretch Antonia!’ muttered Lucrezia, in accents which though low, were fiercely enraged and bitterly vindictive. Edgar’s keen ear caught the words: but he at the moment was occupied in taking a very neces- sary precaution. He was extricating the key from the lock on the outer side of the door, so that he might fasten it inside: and this he did in two or three instants. Total darkness again prevailed in that place. “Now, signora,” said Marcellin, quickly turn- ing round, seizing upon Luerezia again, and speaking in stern menacing accents as before, “let me repeat my warning. Dare cry out — dare attempt to raiso an alarm—and I will throttle you !” The Marchioness was almost annihilated, so to speak. She had fancied that Marcellin was by this time far away in some Apennine fortress: but here she had not only met him face to face, but she was now completely in his power! What, then, had happened during the past night ?—how was it that Count Ramorino, the Minister of Police, had sent her a letter at an early hour in the morning, containing the assurance that his promise had been fulfilled, and that Ciprina and her lover, having been arrested according to the understanding with the Marchioness, had been sent off into a secure captivity? That Ramorino had not wilfully deceived her, the Marchioness felt assured: but yet Edgar Marcellin was here / All was mystery and bewilderment; and as Lu- crezia endeavoured to collect her remembrances and arrange her confused ideas, she could find no possible mode of accounting for the incident that was now go wildly perplexing her. “You here, M. Marcellin?” she ejaculated. “Do not grasp me thus tightly !—do not ill-treat me! What do you require of me?—why do we seem to be enemies P” “Woman! vile woman!” exclaimed Edgar; “am I not still suffering from the wound produced by your murderous weapon P” “ But why did you seek me at the time under circumstances so suspicious P” asked Lucrezia: “why send for mo to the picture-gallery in a way that was only too well caloulated to make moe 91 apprehend that some treachery was impending? Why Oh! it is not for you to ask questions !” ex. claimed Edgar, with an accent of rage in his voice as he thought of how nearly he had been sent down to the grave by the assassin hand of that woman. “Rather let me ask why you have plunged so deeply into the vortex of crime—why you murdered the unfortunate Giulio Z “Tis false!” exclaimed the Marchioness ve- hemently: “I did not do it! Your's was the crime !” “Ah, this is too much!” ejaculated the young Frenchman, his hand tightening upon the arm which it had grasped the moment after he had locked the door snd secured the key about his person, “Dare to repeat the accusation, and by heaven! I will not wait for the operation of the law!—but-I will inflict a condign punishment here!” “ Mercy, M, Marcellin!” implored the affrighted Lucrezia: “would you murder me? Ob, unhand me! Your fingers tighten like an iron vice upon my arm! Let us go forth into the light! Itis horrible to be here together in the dark—and you hating me as bitterly as you do!” “ No—we will not go forth into the light,” re- sponded Edgar, in a stern voice. “I know what you would do—I fathom your aims! You would give me into custody on this false charge which you infamously devised against me! But this shall not be! It is I who am to conquer now— and the hour of that triumph as well as of retri- bution is not far distant! You ask me to release my hold upon your arm? There! I now grasp your wrist. But beware how you attempt the slightest treachery : for if I do but hear a sus. picious moyement on your part, I will strike you down with an iron instrument that i had pro. vided for the breaking open of this door !” “Ts it not possible,” asked Lucrezia, driven to desperation and goaded almost to madness,—“ is it not possible that we can arrive at some undere standing P Oh let it be so!” “Do you confess, then,” demanded Edgar, “that it was really you who assassinated the un- fortunate Giulio Paoli?” “No! no! ten thousand ainios no!” exclaimed the Marchioness. “Speak not so loud!” said ee sternly; and his grasp tightened upon her wrist. “What! vile woman! do yor) dare deny that through the dark- ness which het} prevails, you behold the form of the murdered finlio? or do you deny that the conviction is deep in your own heart that you are already as infamous as your prototype Lucrezia Borgia? or again, dare you deny that you deal with the subtle poison as well as with the sharp- pointed dagger? Ah, vile woman! I know more than you think! Yes—I know that you pene- trated into the room above, one night, when I slept and you thought that Ciprina was sleep- ing : “Ah, Ciprina?” ejaculated the Marchioness, * You have lost her—have you not ?” “JT do not ask you to tell me what has become of her,” rejoined Edgar; “for I know that you would deceive me. But I have full faith in the progress of justice; and I know that retribution will overtake you—while, on the other hang, Comichook co 5}