The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 210: what you’re looking at

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

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Pe ~e - - 908 ” THE BRONZE STATUE. ‘Behold the place!’ said De Colmar, pointing towards the White Mansion, which gleamed at a distance amidst the verdure that embowered it on the gen- tle eminence where it stood. wards the White Mansion, and then reverting with mingled terror and ten- derness to De Colmar. ‘ Likewise,’ he continued, seeing that she wished him to proceed, despite of ‘Ah! you have been—+there ?’ mur- | the agitation wanen the topic caused her mured the Daughter of Glory, in a faint | to experience, and stifling tone; and averting her head from the knight, she rode on for a few minutes in profound silence. ‘].should not have alluded to the ter- rible mystery of the Broaze Statue,’ said Sir Ernest de Colmar, at length feeling this pause to be growing awk- | ward and embarrassing, ‘ had not L deem- ed it probable that you were able to gra- tify the fearful curiosity which I natu- rally experience concerning it.’ ‘Ah!’ exclaimed Gloria, now mecha- | nicully, and indeed quite involuntarily, turning towards De Colmar a counte nance which was as pale as death, and on every lineament of which an awful | terror was depicted. ‘Wherefore should your excellency imagine that I possess the key to the mystery ?’ she demanded, ‘but evidently | with a tremendous effort to keep down the emotions that thus became almost suffocating, because unable to find a vent through the natural issue of agonising ejaculations. ‘Pardon me—oh! pardon me, dear | lady,’ exclaimed De Colmar, now deep- ly compassionating the anguished condi- tion of mind into which his words had thrown the Daughter of Glory ; and re- proaching himself even with the charge of cruelty in having thus tortured her, | he again cried, *‘ Pardon me—pardon me ! 1? ‘It is impossible that 1 can be angry with you,’ Ernest,’ said the lovely crea- ture, in the lowest, deepest, and most moving tones of her rich metallic voice: while at the same time her eyes looked in unto the depths of his own with all the fervor of that devouring passion which she cherished towards him.— ‘But tell me, Ernest—tell me where- fore you imagined that I was able to| solve for you the enigma involved in those words And suddenly she stopped short, as her lips refused to give utterance to the name of the Bronze Statue. ‘Since you ask me thus earnestly, I will respond frankly,’ said the knight. ‘The incidents which occurred in the church some weeks ago, when that aw- ful doom was menaced ‘Yes, yes—menaced against me,’ ex- cluimed Gloria, her eyes glancing to- ‘wise the discourse | which Angela Wildon overheard be- tween Father Cyprian and Dame Mar- | tha at the inn,—that discourse with | which I made you acquainted through ithe agency of General Zitzka, and | which Angela herself has doubtless nar- |rated to you in all its details.’ ‘Yes, that conversation and the me- faces it implied, were duly communi- cated to me,’ said the Daughter of Glo-. ry ; ‘and now | begin to understand that 'because I have been thus threatened /more than once with the doom of the Bronze Statue,’ she added, nerving her- self with a desperate courage to give _ utterance to the name ; § you fancy that | I thoroughly comprehend the nature of that terrific fate, and can explain it to you! And you are right, Ernest— you are right,’ she added, in a low and so- lemn tone, while she struggled with all her force and all her energy, alike of mind and. body, to subdue the writhings which threatened to rend the former and convulse the latter. ‘Yes, I do know the meaning, the significancy, and the hideous barbarism of the Virgin’s Kiss; but, my God! ask me not to re- veal auglit of all that tremendous accu- mulation of mysteries—seek not to per- suade me to draw aside the veil which |covers those unimaginable horrors!— | Besides,’ she added, another startling | reminiscence flashing through her brain —‘there is my oath—my oath—and that I dare not break! Oh! no, no— | God forbid that 1 should break my oath!’ And, apparently forgetful that she was in a public road, and that De Col- mar’s eyes were fixed intently upon her, the Daughter of Glory clasped her hands 'fervently, as if with an impulse of se- |cret supplication to be strengthened in | her resolution to keep some oath of tre- | mendous import, which she had taken. The knight gazed upon her with an indescribable amazement and an uncon- | trollable cur losily ; for he felt that there was some awful mystery connected with ——_ this being of transcendent beauty ; and he longed to pursue the conversation on the same thrilling topic as hitherto, in the hope that she would be at length in- duced to give him her full confidence. But at the very moment when the Daughter of Glory regained her self- comicbooks.com