The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 348: what you’re looking at

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

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Ai . ~ + 4 a) ‘4 a ; : * - oe ; Pa - . ae oe Tb » « ae ~—@ ‘ L— i ech ~* rf * 346 THE BRONZE STATUE. maining minute of her mortal exis- tence: For scarcely had her eyes opened to embrace at one rapid and afirighted glance all these features of the scene which stamped the hideous drama with so appalling a reality ; and while a rend- ing shriek of the intensest anguish wa still thrilling from her tongue, the exe- cutioners seized her in their arms, hur- ried her up to. the Bronze Statue, and bade her receive the Virgin's Kiss ! Then followed immediately a scene at which the soul sickens—at which the crimson current stagnates as if frozen in the veins of the narrator—as if the coldinfluence of deathitself were creep- ing over him from whom the exigencies of the tale wring these harrowing de- tails ! For scarcely had the executioners brought the shrieking, screaming, strug- gling, agonising woman close up to the Bronze Statue, when that image ap- peared to be suddenly endowed with life; the arms, so placidly crossed over the chest, extended themselves slowly, thus unfolding in the manner of one who is about to embrace another; and the whole front part of the colossal im- age opened, like folding-doors, up as far as the neck. But, O God! what a hideous aspect did the interior of the Statue present to the view of the baroness, as in those last few instants of her life she plunged her horrified, distracted looks into the awful engine of punishment. ‘l'wo spikes stuck out from the back part, projecting in such a manner, and so ar- ranged with a diabolical calculation of artistic nicety, that they would enter the eyes of the victim when folded in the Virgin’s embrace ; and all the inner surface of the image was studded with sharp-pointed blades to pierce the flesh in every part of the body. The bell—the invisible bell—having paused for afew moments after strik- ing the third time, had begun to ring with a continuous peal—its intonation no longer characterised with the deep hollowness which before had marked it, but now sounding witha clanging din that pierced through roof and wall, as the ponderous clapper struck sharply and quickly from side to side. And while the piercing, rending shrieks. of the almost frantic baroness mingled with that deafening peal, the three brothers Schwartz thrust her vio- lently forward towards the interior of the Statue. ‘Then the wrms of the im- TT TT TT TT A LT TT me seceees~-cseii LL LLL age suddenly folded over her neck, the doors of the Statue closed upon her, and, amidst the terrific yells that thrilled from her lips and the continu- ous clanging of the invisible bell, was she imprisoned within the body of the colossal effigy of the Virgin! The reader will remember that the White Lady and Sir Ernest de Colmar’s two pages were just entering the cham- ber of the machinery when the din of the bell struck boomingly upon their ears. The Carmelite had given vent to an ejaculation of indescribable anguish and horror as that terrific warning, so well known to her. rang through her brain ; and, a sudden faintness immediately coming over her, she was sinking upon the earth when Lionel had the _pre- sence of mind to snatch the lamp from her hand, while Konrad _ prevented her from falling by receiving her in his arms. A cold shivering ran visibly over the frame of the wretched lady; and her countenance had suddenly changed in- to an expression of unspeakable horror. She endeavored to utter a few words; but her tongue, cleaving to the roof of her mouth, refused to perform its office —and the pages, darting at each other looks full of mingled amazement and apprehension, knew not what to think of the appalling effect produced upon the lady by the sound of that bell. A second time its iron voice boomed through the subterraneans, causing the machinery to oscillate in the chamber and arousing all the echoes in the neigh- boring place of tombs; and, with the suddenness of an inspiration, it flashed to the minds of the startled youths that the awful knell could have but one meaning, and that meaning was 00 longer difficult to conjecture ! ‘Let us fly hence! Back,—back to the cemetery!’ exclaimed the White Lady, all on a sudden recovering her self-possession on account of the despe- rate impulse which urged her to flee from the contemplation of that hideous spectacle which every moment threat- ened to burst upon her horrified vision. And snatching away the lamp from the hand of Lionel, she was about te rush from the chamber of the machi- nery ; when, observing that the youths were transfixed with a dread horror, an awful curiosity, and a harrowing sus- pense, to the spot where they were stunding, she paused to implore them ————<—~SCSCi‘ —_ *. ‘ comicbooks.com