The King's Talisman — page 165: what you’re looking at

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

156 THE KINGS TALISMAN. destroyer. That look asked not sympathy—it asked not kindness—it only begged for pity. ‘< Lady,” continued the king, ‘‘ thy father dies. ‘Thou hast consigned him to his death. As soon as youreyes have beheld his cold corpse, you shall go to Khaibar. Didst think you could come back to my very sight and not bring down the doom. I had threatened?” ‘But my father is not to blame,’ startled by the fear of her parent’s safety than of her own. ‘Surely you will not seek revenge upon a poor old man be- cause his child has dared to preserve her innocence?” ‘* A poor old man, did you say? Better have said a gray- headed traitor! Lady, Petra swarms with traitors. ‘l'o-day —not an hour since, when I did send a force to bring me Abdah Nazor and Noureddin, the people—ay, the -people ! rebelled against my power, and rescued the miscreants from my officers!” “Thank God!’ broke instinctively from Selina’s lips; ‘*Noureddin is safe from the tyrant’s power.” ‘““ Aha,” muttered the monarch, as a demoniacal smile curled like an adder around his lips; “so there lies the trea- son. Your pretty face has captivated the youth from his loyalty. ‘hen there is sweet revenge in store. His head, b - too, thou shalt see in a charger; 1t shall be brought thee - for thy parting gift!” The maiden shrank away from the monster before her with a fearful loathing, and laid her hand upon her atten- dant’s shoulder. Until the present moment Miriam had re- garded the monarch as she would have looked upon a poisonous, creeping reptile; but. when she saw her lady’s grief—when she heard the inhuman threats of the mad king her eyes flashed, and turning her gaze upon the fair brow that had pillowed itself upon her, she exclaimed: ‘*Let not your heart so grieve, dear lady, for you have often told me that the God in whom. you trust was a just cried Selina, more — €O Eomichooks