The King's Talisman — page 164: what you’re looking at

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

THE KING'S TALISMAN. 155 silently followed the way of him who had a right to guide him. CHAPTER XIX. SELINA’S INTERVIEW WITH THE KING. Within an apartment of the royal palace sat Selina and her faithful attendant. The former had been weeping most bitterly, but upon the calm features of the latter there were no traces of tears. Miriam was calm and composed, and in the honest simplicity of her heart she vainly endeavored to impart to her mistress a spark of the flame that burned within herself; but the heart she sought to mold in resig- nation was too fearfully crushed—too bruised and lacerated to rise from its utter darkness, aud she only answered her companion’s importunities by deeper and more hysterical sobs. | ? Miriam had ceased her efforts at consolation, and sat with her kindly beaming eyes turned mournfully upon her mis- tress, while the latter gazed vacantly upon the curiously wrought figures that seemed almost starting to life from the surface of thecarpet. ‘The heavy hangings of crimson and gold that guarded the private entrance to the room were thrust aside, and the king stepped into the girls’ presence. His face was pale and haggard, his lips were livid in their _ fierce compression, his heavy chest was heaving like the swelling sea, and from his eyes flashed a maniacal fire of mad delirium. A moment he gazed upon the two girls, and while they shrank cowering from his forbidding look, he said: ‘Daughter of Al-Bassa dost comprehend that a king hath revenge within his power?” Selina did not start at the words she heard, but she turned her gaze upon the speaker as does the dying stag upon its (eto) Eomicbooks