The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 115: what you’re looking at

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

THE BRONZE STATUE. 113 sion only, and not in the hope of win- ning her hand or engaging her love, then may her salvation be wrought and her emuancipation won by such a cham-_ pion. But if she should reach and pass | her twentieth year; if the hour of mid- | night on that anniversary of her birth | should see no champion arise to combat in her cause against 2 yself—then shall she become mine beyond all possibility | of redemption—mine, to do my bidding | and obey me in all things—mzne, to | dazzle the bravest knights with her lus- trous eyes, and lure them on unto de- struction—mine, to procure me prose- lytes and to people my kingdom with the lost souls that have been sacrificed to her charms!”’ ‘And then Satan entered into some farther details with LIldirim; but it is unnecessary to explain them, for this sad and terrible history has already lasted too long, and there yet remains much to tell. Suffice it to say, then, | passed that the Fiend of Darkness gore in the nostrils, the king was about to summon his dependants and give the alarm of murder, when the withering, blasting reminiscence flashed to his mind that Satan had vowed to wreak a 'sanguinary vengeance upon the head of ‘the Armenian priest ! | ‘The Prince of Darkness was, then, | the author of this tremendous crime; , the principal actor in the astounding | tragedy that thus spread its hideous and | appalling details before the eyes of L- , dirim the king ”’ | | CHAPTER XXXI. CONCLUSION OF THE HISTORY OF SA- TANAIS. ‘Now came the wild rush of bewil- dering thoughts through the already | half- maddened brain of ‘the youthful so- ' vereign -——_What was he to do? should away from the presence of my unhappy | he summon his dependants and allow father, who, when he once more found |them to form their own ideas respect- himself alone, could scarcely believe |ing the crime? or should he endeavor that he had heard aright. But, alas! aj|to shroud it in darkness and conceal it second thought convinced him that it altogether? Yes, for his own sake was indeed all too true; for the words | must he adopt this latter course : other- of Satan rang in his ears; and even if| wise suspicion would point to him ag he had still continued sceptical in de-|the murderer; for had he not been ob- spite of them, there was a mark upon | served to take Heraclius aside in a mys- his wrist which forbade him to treat it|terious manner? Moreover it was ab- allasa dream. Yes, that fatal mark, | Solutely necessary to veil the appalling which five months previously had been | tragedy from Almeria and invent any imprinted upon his arm, remained in- | tale to account for the disappearance of delible with its sinister blackness, as if| the venerable priest. - a —eee a = id ~te . it were a type of his own sad fate! ‘ Overwhelmed with grief ; foreseeing a terrible future not only for himself and his beloved Almeria, but likewise for myself, at that moinent an infant newly born; my tather hastened to the chamber 6f Heraclius in or der to com- municate to the good Armenian priest all that had just taken place. He open- ed the door and entered the room: but, great heaven! what a spectacle of hor- ror met the eyes of Ildirim. The ve- nerable Heraclius was no more ; he had been murdered—destroyed ; nay, liter- ally torn to pieces! Weltering in the blood that was still warm and ‘reeking, the dismembered remains were scatter- ed upon the carpet; the legs here, the arms there; even the very head wrenched off and the eyes scooped out! It was horrible—most horrible ; | and staggering back, with a sickening sensation rut the heart; a whirling in the brain: and the smell of human ‘It is difficult to imagine, and totally impossible to describe how the wretch- ed Ildirim could so far compose his fea- tures as to be enabled to visit his wife’s chamber without exciting suspicion that something dreadful had occurred. Cer- tain it is, however, that having careful- ly secured the door of the apartment containing the mangled remains of the Armenian priest, he hastened to em- brace his beloved Almeria and behold the twin-children she had borne him. And, as he bent over the young mo- ther, he could read in the anxious look of inquiry which she fixed upon him, the thoughts that were passing in her soul : and, stooping down, he whisper- ed.words, which, though vague and in- definite, were nevertheless calculated to ‘comfort and re-assure her. ‘When the deep midnight came and darkness ruled the eart h, Ildirim re- | paired to the chamber where the mur- ‘dered Heraclius lay. Gathering the : comicbooks.com